


White and Gold

by ShadowMistWolf



Series: Gift of the Goddess [1]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Genre: Cloud's older sister, Complete, F/M, Fixing stuff, Fun things at the end, Multi, future Cloud, little bit of feels, things get good then crash to hell, tiny bit of Zack/Original Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-03-15
Packaged: 2018-05-20 14:22:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 39
Words: 46,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6010957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowMistWolf/pseuds/ShadowMistWolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jasmine "Jas" Strife is a 2nd Class SOLDIER training under Genesis Rhapsodos. The very first female SOLDIER, Jas must find a way to save her mentor from himself as she and Zack Fair set out to end the calamity about to begin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“ _Commence mission in 3… 2… 1… Mission start. SOLDIER operative is cleared for insertion._ ” Glowing blue eyes scanned the surrounding area carefully before pulling out a long sword from the back harness. Spiky blonde hair was pulled back in a long braid that fell nearly to the floor as multiple enemy soldiers appeared.

“Remember Jas, precision, and speed are what this test is about.” The white and gold clad figure nodded and dashed forwards, slashing each enemy in quick succession without missing a beat, repeating her attacks with each wave of enemies until none remained. Standing as the enemies dissolved into nothing, the figure pulled the headgear off and stowed the sword before turning to face the red clad 1st Class SOLDIER.

“Perfect as always.” The figure, a girl of 16, nodded.

“Only because you’ve pushed me to limits, Genesis.”

“No, you pushed yourself; I merely gave you the encouragement.” Jas gave a small sigh but nodded all the same, knowing it was pointless to try and argue with him.

“‘There is no hate, only joy, for you are beloved by the goddess’.” The blonde shook her head again before following her superior out of the training room, gold 3/4 skirt flowing with each step as she brushed her bangs from her eyes.

“LOVELESS, Act II.” Jas could practically feel the smirk on her mentor’s lips as they walked, turning corners to the cafeteria for lunch. As they entered, Jas noticed two familiar people seated at their usual table, Angeal and Zack. They purchased their meals and sat at the table, Genesis across from Angeal and Jas across from Zack.

“Hey Jas, how’d the training go?”

“It was fine.”

“Oh yeah, didn’t you have a test today?” The blonde nodded in answer.

“Yes, speed and precision.”

“You aced that huh, I bet you’re even faster than Sephiroth by now!” She simply shook her head, not saying anything as she finished her food then turned back to Genesis.

“Anything else for today?”

“Not unless the Director sends us out on a mission.” Jas nodded and headed out, ignoring the shout from Zack as she exited the room. She left the ShinRa building altogether and entered the apartment complex not far away, something she was amazingly able to afford with the pay she got from being in SOLDIER. Many people glanced at her as she walk, being the only woman to ever be accepted into SOLDIER, she was rather famous amongst the people; that and her uniform was very noticeable, being white and gold as opposed to the darker colors of the usual SOLDIER uniforms. She wore the standard uniform for missions and sorts, keeping it at her dorm room in the ShinRa building for convenience.

She entered the apartment, stepping carefully over the mound of letters that had built up over the couple weeks she had stayed inside ShinRa because of heavy training and constant missions. She closed the door and picked up the stack as she swung her blade from her back and set it against then wall sat on the small sofa. She tore up the random love letters and spam mail, tossing them in a metal waste bin then promptly setting it on fire with a materia before opening the first of four letters sent from her home town, Nibelheim, where her mother and younger brother lived.

Letter:

Dearest Jasmine,  
It seems ShinRa has you busy lately, your letters are lessening by the week. I know you’ve probably been working hard and I’m so very proud of you for being so strong in everything, especially your commitment to your dream. Everything around here has been very quiet, even the wolves and dragons have been keeping to themselves lately and it’s very nice, but I have a feeling that something is going to happen soon. I’m sure it’s nothing though. Cloud misses you even though he doesn’t say it, and it seems like he and Tifa are finally starting to get along. I think it’s one of his ways of distracting himself from you not being here, you two were so close before you went away. All the same, I wish you luck on your missions my darling daughter,  
-Your Mother 

The blonde chuckled a bit at the memories of the pointless scuffles that she had broken the two out of all the time, reading through the next two letters, which were basically the same as the first, and then picking up the fourth and last one.  
Letter:

My dear Daughter,  
Cloud’s been restless with how long it’s been since we received a letter from you, I try to tell him that you are very busy, but it seems as though he doesn’t want to listen. He’s been fascinated with that ‘Silver General’ in SOLDIER, though I don’t really know his name. I wonder if you know who it is. Anyway, Cloud now wants to join SOLDIER like you did, and although I don’t want to see him leave, I fear that I have no place to hold him back, so please, if he really does chase this dream, watch over him to the best of your ability. I know that he will be able to protect himself, but I just need that little bit of reassurance that my eldest daughter is still looking out for her little brother. Tifa doesn’t want him to go either, but it seems Cloud has his mind set on this. So I wish you the best,  
-Your Mother 

Jas dropped the letter and sighed deeply, dropping her head before looking at the dates for all the letters seeing that this had been the second letter, dated back nearly three weeks, and since Cloud was only 3 years younger than her, he could have left already and joined. With this new knowledge in mind, Jas jumped from her couch and grabbed her blade before storming back to ShinRa. The last thing Jas wanted was for her brother to walk into the den of insanity that was SOLDIER.


	2. Chapter 2

Jas all but punched the floor button on the elevator in mental anger mixed with frustration, a frown was set on her lips and her eyes were blue shards. The doors opened on the 49th floor and the blonde headed to the SOLDEIR Director’s office. Zack caught sight of her in the hall and had called out a ‘hey’ before noticing the atmosphere around her and ducked behind Angeal who simply watched her stalk past with an amused expression.

When she finally did reach the door to the director’s office, Jas took a few deep breaths before pressing the com button that was just to the side.

“This is SOLDIER 2nd, Jasmine Strife, permission to enter Director?”

“Yes, come in, Jas.” The door slid open and the blonde walked in as calmly as she could, sitting down in one of the chairs at the absurdly long table.

“What can I do for you?” Lazard placed his chin on top of his interlaced hands as he stared at the blonde.

“I was wondering if it would be possible to find a certain name on the list of recent SOLDIER applicants.”

“I suppose so, is there a name in particular that you’d like to find?” Lazard leaned back and began typing things into the computer in front of him.

“Cloud Strife.” Lazard paused for an instant to glance at Jas before resuming his search in silence. A few seconds later he stopped and turned to the girl.

“It seems there was an applicant by that name, but they didn’t pass the test and instead entered the ShinRa military.” Jas stayed silent for a moment before slamming her fist into the table, standing, and began pacing back and forth mumbling things that were barely audible with her hands clenched at her sides. Seeing her obvious distress, Lazard stood and pulled her against him gently but tightly.

“Deep breaths; you need to calm down a bit.” It took a few seconds, but Jas’s hands uncurled and she slumped a bit before Lazard released her from his hold.

“Now, I’m guess that this Cloud is a family member?” Jas nodded, running a hand threw her bangs before resting them on her hips.

“Yeah, my younger brother. The last letter I received from my mother spoke of him joining SOLDIER because he looks up to the General.” A small smirk and an amused glint filled the Directors features.

“So you’re jealous that your dear younger brother only joined SOLDIER because of the General and not his elder sister?” The blonde glared up her him through her hair.

“That not it! I don’t want him involved with a company like ShinRa! No offence, but this place seems like it’ll do whatever it wants, whenever it want, to get whatever it wants. I hate how superior the President thinks he is and what he’s doing to this planet!” Jas snapped before realization hit her and she slapped her hands over her mouth in horror. Lazard chuckled at her reaction before sitting back down in his seat while Jas stood still like a statue before basically collapsing into her chair again.

“S-sorry…” Lazard laughed at the blonde that was now glaring at him, but her glare fell and her eyes focused on the table top.

“It’s fine, what’s on your mind?”

“I’m just worried, my brother wasn’t exactly the strongest boy of the bunch, and he’s always been distant because of how we were raised. I just don’t think he’ll last very long without a friend or something.”

“I’m sure your brother will do well if he’s anything like you are. How about something to get your mind off the matter for now? I actually have a mission for you and Genesis over in Wutai.”

“Wutai… sounds rather interesting.”

“I thought you might like it, we’re sending you with a couple squads of 2sts and 3nds as well. I’ll call up Genesis and then we can send you off right away.” Jas sat back in the chair and crossed her arms over her chest, nodding as Lazard made a call and they sat back and waited. It wasn’t long until Genesis strode in, crimson coat fluttering behind him.

“Oh, there you are Jas; I was getting worried.”

“I doubt it.” Genesis chuckled and ruffled the blonde’s hair from where he stood beside her before turning to face Lazard.  
“So where are we heading off to now, Director?”

“Wutai, to help in the war.”

“Hmmm, a new challenge to face. Alright, when shall we leave?”

“First thing tomorrow when we get transport set and prepped. You’ll have three squads of 2nds and 4 squads of 3rds with you on this mission, so be careful.” Genesis nodded before pulling the blonde from her seat by her wrist and striding from the room. Jas couldn’t tell what her mentor was thinking but the second she realized that they were heading to his office she knew why he had suddenly pulled her from the room. He released her inside and closed the door, gesturing for her to take a seat on the crimson leather couch. The blonde sat down as her mentor pulled his desk chair up in front of her.

“So why were you with the Director?”

“I asked him to check on something for me.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, my younger brother decided to try and join SOLDIER, so I asked Lazard if he could check the most recent applicant for my brother. He did apply, but he didn’t make it in, so he joined the military instead.” Genesis nodded and Jas noticed that he seemed to relax a little bit for some reason or another, but she discarded the thought,

“I see; well then, you should go prepare for tomorrow, we won’t be back for a while.” Jas nodded and said her farewell before heading out and down to the cafeteria since the events of the evening had taken a lot longer than she would have thought possible. Once there, Jas got her meal before heading over to sit down by Zack who was with another 2nd class SOLDIER.

“Hey Zack, who’s this?”

“Jas! I was wondering when you’d show up. This is Kunsel, a friend of mine.” The 2nd nodded at me and I did the same.

“Jasmine Strife, nice to meet you, you can call me Jas like everyone else.”

“Kunsel, it’s nice to meet you too.” Jas returned to her meal, but Zack drew her back into the conversation.

“We put in a reservation for Training Room 49 tomorrow; you should come and train with us Jas! I’ve been dying to go against you since our first spar!” Jas chuckled but shook her head.

“Sorry Zack, but I’ve been assigned a mission with Genesis; we leave first thing in the morning.”

“What?! Man, me and Angeal haven’t been on a mission in a long time, you’re so lucky Genesis is put out on the field so much.”

“Well, it’s not all fun and games Zack, and we aren’t being sent on just any mission. We’re being deployed for the war in Wutai.”

“No way!!”

“What’s all the noise about?” A voice broke through as Angeal sat down next to Kunsel across from Jas.

“Jas is getting sent to Wutai!”

“I heard about that from Genesis just a while ago, good luck out there Jas.”

“Thanks Angeal, I’ll do my best.” Jas nodded to the 1st before gathering her now empty tray to return to the cooks before saying her goodbyes and heading back to her apartment where she packed her sword care material, her materia collect, and her 2nd class uniform. She took the single bag back to her ShinRa dorm room and tossed it onto the bed after closing the door; changing into a simple tank top and shorts before climbing under the sheets and allowing herself to fall asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Jas woke at dawn the next morning and changed into her 2nd class uniform, packing her white and gold outfit into her bag, and headed to the cafeteria to pick up a bite to eat before heading to find Genesis who was waiting at the front door to the building. Without a work besides a greeting, they headed out to the airfield where the other troops were waiting. 

Half were already on board one of the aircrafts so Genesis and Jas boarded the second, sitting towards the front as they took off. The flight was mostly silent with the roar of the engines being too loud to hear each other speak until they finally touched down hours later in an outer region of Wutai. 

Immediately they set about unloading the men and cargo before setting up a temporary base of sorts. Jas fiddled with the leather straps of her uniform in discomfort, not used to wearing it for long periods of time.

“If it makes you that uncomfortable Jas, go put on your other clothes, it doesn’t matter if you’re in uniform or not.” Genesis chuckled while the blonde thanked him before heading back to the now empty aircraft to ditch the uniform and pull on her white and gold outfit, tucking a few choice materia into her belt pouch before heading back out. A few of the other gave her strange looks but turned away when Jas glared. She returned to Genesis’s side and glanced over the region map that had been laid out, the main focus being a weapons warehouse. 

“Do we have a plan?”

“Infiltration then a four sided assault on the building seems like a good way to go.” Jas bobbed her head in agreement as Genesis went about explaining the more in-depth details of the plan while she added a few pointers here and there. 

There were several missions to complete before they would return to Midgar, each estimated to take a few days to a few weeks each. Jas left Genesis after they decided she would be the one to infiltrate the warehouse and then Genesis would lead the assault teams. All this would start closer to twilight, giving them the advantage of using night gear. The blonde girl headed a few meters away from where the other men were and pulled her sword from its harness, going through the basic practiced swings as she closed her eyes in focus. 

Genesis watched his student’s expert form as she moved quickly through the strikes he had pounded into her from the start. The scar across her face had been from that first day. It started as a simple spar to see what she was good at and what she needed to improve, but a misstep had nearly cost her an eye when she couldn’t dodge his strike. She hadn’t held it against him, which he had been confused about until Jas told him that she thought of it as a reminder that no matter how good she seems, she can find a way to get better. 

And so her two years of intense training with the 1st Class had begun, daily routines of endurance, strength, and agility challenged her physically and mentally. Genesis had watched the small 13 year old girl grow into a strong and independent woman that could easily match him in battle. Then one year later, here she was ready to face down a war without hesitation. The pride he felt was too great to put into word, but everyone knew of it by the way he would brag about her achievements, no matter how subtly he did so. To him, she was his greatest accomplishment.

Jas herself held a great deal of respect for her mentor, even more than Sephiroth himself. It had taken a while to understand his quirks and his temper, but once she had worked past it, they had formed an unbeatable team in battle and a strong bond of friendship in daily life. And though she would never admit to it, Jas had a small crush on Genesis when she had first been put under his charge. Her feeling had slowly faded as the years went by, dissipating until they were nothing but whispers at the back of her mind. 

Jas snapped back into reality as her blade classes with the crimson tinted metal of Genesis’s sword. The blonde complied to the challenging look in her mentor’s eyes by striking at him with her deep grey, nearly black, blade. Genesis caught the strike and retaliated, swinging for a hit to her shoulder that she blocked with little to ne effort at all. By now most of the other soldiers had gathered at a distance to watch the two spar, backing away when the attack ranges of the two increased. 

Genesis and Jas broke away and stood at opposite sides of the clearing, Jas activating the thunder materia in her sword as Genesis powered up own blade before they clashed again, fire against thunder. Soon enough, Jas found herself on the defense, mostly blocking and evading the powerful strikes as heat washed over her from the glowing red blade. Sweat rolled down her face from the heat and exercise, but she still pushed forwards, a powerful swing and a shot of electricity blasting out from her strike as Genesis jumped back to avoid it. The mass of soldiers yelled and dived to avoid the blast of lighting before it hit them, and at the sound, Genesis called the match to an end.

Jas placed her sword back into its harness at her back and wiped her forehead with the back of her hand as she moved away from the area that was now full of scorch marks and craters and torn up grass, plus a few downed trees. 

“You’ve gotten better.” Genesis commented when they were both sitting with canteens of water in their hands as the sun sunk lower on the horizon.

“I try.” Genesis chuckled and nothing more was said as they when to prepare for the first half of their mission. It didn’t take long before the blonde was sneaking through the trees and past the guards, carefully finding an open window and slipping inside, cautious of her heels on the concrete floor and she snuck down to the lower level. She hid behind the stairs for a moment and then jumped out at the passing guard, a choke hold silencing him after a minute before she laid the man down out of sight and continued. 

Jas easily found the storage containers that Genesis had told her to check before signaling for the assault to begin, but when she managed to pry open the metal doors, an empty space greeted her. She took a step inside and then was about to step back out when something heavy struck the back of her head and she fell, unconscious, to the floor.


	4. Chapter 4

Jas’s eyes fluttered open and she winced at the pain radiating from her head as she attempted to stand but staggered and fell back down to her knees. She reached a handback and felt a wet sticky substance coating the back of her head, soaking into her hair. She wiped the blood off onto the grass before tried to stand again, successfully this time with only a bit of dizziness. Leaning against a tree for support until she regained a bit of her strength, Jas noticed that her sword was no longer in its usual position on her back, it wasn’t anywhere in sight either. 

At the sound of footsteps, Jas looked up to see the familiar face of her mentor, but by the look in his eyes, something wasn’t right.

“Genesis? What happened?” 

“You were knocked out and brought here.” The blonde backed away when she noticed that Genesis had his sword in his grip.

“What are you doing?” A smirk crossed his lips, but it wasn’t one that Jas had ever seen before from him, this smirk sent chills running down her spine and the hair on the back of her neck rise.

“I’m here to get rid of my plans biggest flaw. I can’t have you interfering anytime soon, Jas.” 

“Gen-” Her eyes widened as she rolled away from the strike from the crimson blade and she continued to dodge away from Genesis’s attacks, all the while pleading with him to explain and stop. It wasn’t long until her pounding head made her slip up, giving Genesis the opportunity to grasp her long braid and violently throw her into a tree. As Jas lay gasping in pain, Genesis calmly stood over her and drove his blade through her right hand, pinning it to the floor as she cried out in agony. Blood seeped from the wound, staining her white glove red as the crimson clad man used her pain to distract her from him bending her leg into an awkward position.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill you Jas, just put you out of action for a while.”

“Genesis, stop!! Please!!!” Ignoring her pleas, Genesis slammed his foot down with a resounding ‘snap’ followed by Jas’s scream. Tears slowly crawled down her cheeks as her breathing turned to shallow gasps and her left hand gripped the earth beneath her. The blonde whimpered in pain as Genesis yanked his blade from her hand and grabbed her materia poach before kicking her with as much strength as he could manage, sending her flying through several trees that topples onto her as she laid there, eyes closed in unconsciousness. 

Lowering his blade, the cold expression left him as Genesis was overwhelmed by guilt as he looked on at his student’s bruised and broken form lying pinned to the earth. Steeling his resolve, Genesis turned away and walked out of the area. 

***

Watching in disbelief, a young Wutai girl stared at the retreating form of the crimson clad man before her gaze snapped to the limp body of the girl. After checking to make sure that the man was gone, the girl jumped down from her perch in the tree and moved towards the unconscious body. Doing her best to move the heavy objects, the girl finally freed Jas and then proceeded to drag the blonde through the forest via a hidden path that finally reached a large Wutai structure. 

After struggling to get the heavier woman into the building and onto a bed, the girl sat back and checked her injured, cringing at the shear brutality that she had endured. 

“Geez, that guy sure is mean, doing this to a woman. If I ever find him I’ll beat him up!” 

***

At the ShinRa building, two weeks had passed since Zack had heard from his blonde female friend, two weeks since she had last responded to his calls or messages. At first he thought it might have been the distance or her location, but when he questioned Angeal, his mentor’s answer of the calls being able to go through anywhere troubled him greatly. His next conclusion was that she lost it or it was damaged was also blown out of the water because he knew better than most that she kept constant tract of that thing no matter what and always made sure that it was within reach. 

“…ack …. Zack!” The raven haired boy fell back in fright when he noticed that Angeal himself was standing over him with a frown.

“Oh, hey Angeal.”

“You’ve been spacing out a lot recently, what’s wrong?” Sitting upright, Zack ran a hand through his messy black hair.

“I’m just worried about Jas. She’s been out of touch for a while.” Angeal’s face fell a bit as he pulled Zack up from the floor.

“Come with me.” Extremely confused, Zack followed the older man up to the Director’s office where the Director himself looked crestfallen about something. Looking up the monitor across the room, shock paralyzed the 2nd. There, just below the image of Genesis Rhapsodos who had been proclaimed M.I.A., was an image of Jasmine Strife, below that: K.I.A.. 

“I received a call from Genesis reporting that Jas had been taken captive by Wutai troops, two days later he called to tell me that she had been executed as a ShinRa SOLDIER. I sent a squad to confirm, and they returned with the worst. I’m sorry, but Jas is dead.” The weight hit Zack like a ton of bricks and he dropped to his knees, shaking his head in disbelief.

“No… There’s no way she’d die out there…” Angeal put a hand on the younger’s shoulder with a grim expression as he stared up at the two faces on the screen. Slowly, Zack stood and walked from the room, leaving Angeal and Lazard. 

Taking the elevator down to the SOLDIER floor, Zack sat down in one of the chairs next to the window, folded hands covering his eyes as he fought against his better judgment about his friend. 

“Zack? What’s wrong man?” Kunsel approached the distraught man who simply shook his head.

“She’s gone.” Confused, Kunsel turned to face Zack.

“Who?”

“Jas. She’s been confirmed K.I.A.”


	5. Chapter 5

Awaking to pain radiating through various areas of her body, Jas forced her eyes open to see the wood roof on the unfamiliar room she was in. Reaching a hand up to her pounding head, the blonde found it to be bandaged. Confused, Jas attempted to sit but found it impossible to do so with the amount of pain from her stomach and right hand. Clenching her jaw against the pain, Jas managed to sit back against the wall, panting from the use of her weakened arms.

Looking around the room, she saw her gold skirt was lying across a chair with her pants folded on top, seeing this she looked down and sighed in relief at her black shorts still on her. On the table next to the bed, a bowl of water and a rag were there along with paper pouches that she could only guess held some sort of medicine or other. Checking herself over, she found her torso, hand, and right leg completely wrapped in bandages, her leg she was barely able to move without being paralyzed in pain.

Thinking back on what could have possible happened to her, her fight with Genesis came rushing back to her and she clenched her fists in a mix of anger, frustration, rage, and surprisingly, guilt. The handle of the door turned and broke her from her thoughts as a girl walked in, a bowl clutched to her chest. Both girls froze when they made eye contact, Jas being the first to speak.

“Where am I, and who are you?” Blue eyes narrowed onto a glare as the Wutai girl shivered.

“You’re at Fort Tamblin, and I’m Yuffie Kisaragi! Wutai’s greatest warrior! I found you out in the forest under a bunch of trees, so I brought you here to heal you! But then you got a fever and I was really worried that you weren’t gonna wake up for a while! By the way, you mumble a lot in your sleep. Oh, what’s your name? Are you a warrior too? Can y-”

“Slow down! You’re making my head hurt, no offense.” Jas cut off the smaller girl’s ramblings sharply, a hand massaging her temple to ease the pain.

“Oh, sorry.”

“It’s alright; anyway, my name’s Jasmine. I’m a 2nd Class SOLDIER, so yes, I know how to fight, but I can’t at the moment with all these injuries. How long was I out?”

“About a month actually, I used my best materia to try and heal it, but I made it worse so I stopped and used the old fashioned method. You were probably asleep so long because of the materia, which is really weird because I’ve never seen anyone react to materia like you did.”

“A month…” Jas’s eyes fell, the reality of the situation dawning on her until one thought stood out against the others and she reached went to reach into her pants pocket only to remember that they weren’t actually on her body anymore.

“My phone.” Blue eyes drifted to the white material and Yuffie put the bowl down before reached into a drawer of the side table and pulling out the slim black device, holding it out to the blonde. 

“This?”

“Yes, thank you, Yuffie.” Jas took her phone and flipped it open, eyes widening at the amount of messages and calls she had missed.

“No problem, it was ringing every day for the first couple weeks, then it started ringing off the hook for a few days, it hasn’t since.” Scrolling through, she saw a few messages from Zack inquiring about where she was, a few stray ones from Angeal, and then she saw the ShinRa announcement message proclaiming Genesis Missing In Action, and her Killed In Action. The messages from Zack begging her to answer and tell him she was alive where the only thing after that message, the number of missed calls had increased before dwindling away until they stopped completely. 

Her friend thought she was dead… Her mentor had nearly killed her… and god only knew how long it would take to heal when materia didn’t work for some reason. Snapping her phone closed, Jas sighed and ran a hand through her hair, finding that it was no longer bound in its usual braid and flowed free around her. 

“Hey Yuffie?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I see the materia you were trying to use on me?” Confused by the request, Yuffie gave her a questioning glance but nodded all the same.

“Sure.” Moving towards a small chest, Yuffie lifted the lid to reveal nothing but materia from which Yuffie grabbed a bright green one that rested on top of the others.

“It was this one; it’s the only one I have.” The small girl handed over the materia and Jas examined the green sphere until her advanced sight caught sight of a barely noticeable crack along the surface of the materia.

“It’s cracked.”

“WHAT?!” Shocked, Yuffie snatched the materia back and looked it over repeatedly.

“No it isn’t!!”

“It is. I can see it because of my mako enhances, it wouldn’t be seen by a normal person.” Slumping in defeat, Yuffie bowed her head.

“I’m sorry; I didn’t know it was broken.”

“Don’t worry about it, it’s not like you could have known.” Jas smiled lightly but winced at the pain that had suddenly bombarded her head. See this, Yuffie jumped up. 

“Here, I got some soup for you, then you can take some medicine and sleep some more.”

“Thanks Yuffie.” Jas accepted the bowl of warm soup and downed it, not realizing just how hungry she was until the bowl had been offered. After that, she downed a packet that had indeed been medicine before Yuffie left and she wiggled back down into a laying position. Sleep seemed to elude her though, her thoughts were plagued by the harsh truth of reality, and guilt ate at her conscious for making her friend suffer thinking she was really dead. Finally, she dozed off into a restless sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

A month passed since Jas woke, and ever since she had been slowly healing until she was able to start training again, building her muscles back up so that she could face down Genesis if they ever crossed paths again, and they undoubtedly would. Yuffie had given the blonde a simple crimson red sleeveless cropped top and a matching pair of capris training pants with black shoes. Her right leg seemed to be sore constantly, but she slowly managed to work past it and continue until it faded away. And her long hair had proved to be a nuisance to braid every day, so she gave up on that and left it in a high ponytail, borrowing a sharp metal hairstick with a blue crystal ornament. Though with her sword gone, Jas had to improvise on most of her training routines, but she managed, using the sharp and surprisingly sturdy metal hairstick as a weapon instead. 

Everything was peaceful and most of the Wutai soldiers left the blonde alone thanks to Yuffie, though some did give her strange looks and glares on occasion. Jas had also taken to giving the smaller girl a bit of training since she wasn’t the best despite claiming to be. 

There was one day in particular that Jas noticed the tension rising, so she stuck to helping out Yuffie instead of training. Though with her lower stamina, Yuffie had to take breaks unlike Jas. The blonde didn’t seem to mind though; in fact she had grown to enjoy the strange girl’s ways and oddities. 

It was late that afternoon when Yuffie suggested that they go back for some food, her stomach agreeing and making Jas laugh a little at the flustered ninja, but she agreed all the same. As they headed back, a sudden explosion spewed fired and smoke into the air. Jas looked around as troops ran towards the tower of rising smoke. In the confusion, Yuffie yelled something before disappearing, leaving Jas to try and chase after her but to no avail. Signing, Jas headed to the room they she had been occupying and changed into her white top and pants before securing her skirt and heading out to find the small ninja.

It felt like she had searched for hours before finally stopping near the center dojo when the person she had been looking for ran into her.

“Hey Jas! I defeated one of those ShinRa guys! But you should go make sure, cause I think he was faking it because he didn’t want to face my wrath!!” The blonde chuckled a bit before nodding.

“Alright, in that case, I’ll be right back.” 

“Be careful!” Jas looked back but shrugged when she saw that Yuffie had once again disappeared. Heading in the direction the smaller girl had come from; Jas made her way to the dojo, seeing no one in sight except for the doors of the large building were open. Hearing the sound of a blade and the roars of monsters, Jas sprinted up the steps and stopped before the door as the sounds died, opting to quietly sneak into the room.

Hiding behind one of the large pillars, Jas gripped the fabric of her skirt. Of all the people to infiltrate the base that she had been at, it had to be him. It had to be Zack. Hesitating to reveal herself, Jas stayed hidden behind the pillar as something heavy struck the floor. After a few minutes of Zack’s blade clashing with the beast, it fell to the ground and Zack approached the monster, only to be hit back into the pillar she was hidden. He cursed and fell to the ground, sword held before him as he sat on the floor in pain. Taking this as an opportunity, Jas used the next pillar over to launch herself at the giant monster, impaling her sharp hairstick into a vein in its neck before quickly stabbing another and tearing it out with as much forced as she could to rip open the wound. 

The blonde hopped to the ground as the beast fell, gurgled gasps finally faded as it died. With splashes of blood covering her, she locked eyes with Zack and he stared at her in utter shock and disbelief as he lowered his blade. Jas whipped around when an angry shout came from behind as a Wutai soldier lunged for her, but she jumped back out of reach just as a familiar large blade cut the man down. 

No one said a word for a few seconds as Jas and Angeal stared at each other before his gaze flicked to the side and Jas followed it only to get tackled by Zack. 

“I knew it! I knew you were alive!” The black haired boy had his arms wrapped around the girl’s waist as he looked up at her with a large smile. 

“I’m alive.” Jas laughed lightly and pushed Zack away from her and stood up.

“Alright, let’s get out of here, Lazard is waiting for us.” Zack nodded firmly and went to follow Angeal out but stopped when he noticed that Jas wasn’t moving and her gaze was fixed on the floor. Walking back, he grasped her hand in his and began pulling her with him as he smiled back at her.

“I’m not letting you out of my sight and I’m not leaving you behind either.” Jas’s grip on her hairstick and Zack’s hand tightened and she nodded firmly, a single tear streaked down her cheek as her eyes were hidden by her blonde bangs. Zack shot her a sympathetic smile and headed after Angeal, heading out of the fort and into the surrounding forest. 

Soon enough, they reached Lazard who stood with a few infantry men, but most surprising of all was that he had Jas’s sword in hand.  
“Sorry if I’m late, I’m not used to being sent out into the field, plus I got a little side tracked.” He held the dark blade out and Angeal took hold of it.  
“Its fine Director, and I guess we both found something important.” The 1st Class looked back and Jas stepped forwards into view where Lazard gaped at the sight of her for a second before regaining his usual expression.

“Looks like we have a lot to talk about.”

“I guess so.”

“It can wait though, we have a helicopter waiting.” Jas nodded, a small smile resting on her lips at the familiar feeling of being with her friends again.


	7. Chapter 7

A rustling sound reached Jas’s ears and her eyes snapped to the side as two figured jumped from the trees. On instinct, Jas pulled the Director behind her and readied herself by grabbing her sword out of the air as Angeal tossed it to her, sticking the hairpin back into her hair for future use.

“Zack, Jas, get the Director to safety!” 

“Right!” They both answered and took off in the opposite direction from the sounds of blades clashing together. Jas knocked out a Wutai soldier that leapt out at her and Zack cut down the other before they continued, heading to where the thrum of a helicopter was originating from. 

They reached the chopper after being attacked b Wutai soldiers again, but they came out unharmed each time. 

“Zack, go help Angeal, I’ll stay with the Director.” The blonde called out to her friend, noticing that he had been glancing behind them every chance he got.

“Got it!” He took off back towards Angeal and Jas lowered her blade to rest it at her side, taking a second to run her hand through her hair.

“So what happened, Jas?” Lazard turned to her as they waited, Jas giving him a confused glanced before realizing just what he was asking.

“Hmm? Oh, Genesis happened.” She rubbed the pale scar that ran across the back of her hand, mirrored on her palm from the crimson blade that had been turned on her of all people. 

“Genesis?!” Jas nodded with a grim expression painted across her face.

“I don’t know why… I’m just as confused as you are Director.” The blonde sighed but snapped to attention with her sword at the ready when she heard footsteps coming towards them. She lowered the dark blade when Zack emerged with a familiar man with long silver hair.

“General Sephiroth.” Jas muttered under her breathe as the Silver General glanced at her for a second then looked past her to Lazard. 

“Where’s Angeal?” The SOLDIER Director questioned as Jas stepped aside.

“With Genesis, we need to leave.” With that, they boarded the helicopter, Jas taking a seat beside the door and Zack next to her. Jas looked out at the forest with a sad smile, Yuffie would probably miss her a lot, but she had her phone number, so it wasn’t too bad. A soldier closed the door and took a seat as the chopper sprang to life and lifted off from the ground. Jas sighed lightly and rested her head against Zack’s shoulder, exhausted from the sudden bursts of action that she hadn’t seen in months. The blonde was asleep in minutes, not bothered at all by the lurches of the aircraft of the loud sound of the engine. Zack glanced at the sleeping girl from time to time, noticing how skinny she had gotten, how pale her skin seemed to be, and the scars that she had. The one that stood out the most to him was the one on her hand, but he would have to wait for answers from his friend, right now he was just glad she was alive and back. 

It took a few hours, but eventually they landed outside the ShinRa building. Zack roused Jas from her sleep and helped the tired girl from the chopper, keeping her steady as she jumped down to the ground and stumbled a bit, and they went inside. Lazard had them all meet at his office in one hour, giving them enough time to wash and change clothes, which Jas was very grateful for considering her clothes were stained in blood. 

Jas took her time in the shower, savoring the hot water on her skin and the cleanliness of her hair before she got out and changed into a spar uniform that she had laid out earlier. She tossed her hair into a low ponytail and strapped her sword into its harness, smiling at the familiar feeling of it pressed against her back. She left the hairstick on the bed to clean it later and she headed up to Lazard’s office, arriving there last. 

There was an empty seat beside Zack than she took, settling herself down into the soft cushion as they all looked at the Director who took this as a sign to begin.

“I believe that we should start with you Jas. You said that Genesis was reason for your absence?” The blonde nodded solemnly.

“Yeah. It happened during the first mission we had been assigned; I was supposed to sneak into the warehouse and find the container that would give us the evidence we needed to launch the assault, but when I found it, someone knocked me out. When I came to, I was out in the forest somewhere, and Genesis attacked me. I didn’t have my sword, so all I could do was dodge him until I slipped up and he threw me into a tree, stabbed my hand to the ground to keep me from moving, then he broke my leg. I couldn’t really tell what happened next, but I’m sure he kicked me through some trees before I passed out. I woke up a month later or so, because the girl that had found me had tried to use a broken materia to heal me, but it backfired and I didn’t wake up for some time, and when I did, I found all the messages in my phone and especially the one announcing my death. It was another month before I recovered enough to start training again, and thanks to the girl that found me, I was left alone for the most part. That’s when I found Zack and you know the rest.” 

“I see, it’s a relief to have you back alive and in one piece. The matter of Genesis and now Angeal’s disappearances will have to be looked into, but that can wait. For now, you all have time to do as you wish before you are sent out again, use it wisely.” The three present nodded and left the room, Jas hesitated for a second and Lazard caught on, handing her a piece of paper with a room number on it. 

“You should go see him, his marks started to drop a bit after your ‘death’.” The blonde took the paper and nodded to the Director with a small smile on her lips before she headed out to the elevator. Zack shot the girl a strange look when she rushed in the opposite direction from the 2nd Class dorms but shrugged it off when he saw the excited sparkle in her glowing blue eyes.


	8. Chapter 8

Jas glanced from side to side as the doors passed her, infantrymen giving her strange looks and kept their distance from the female SOLDIER. Finally spotting the number that matched the one on the paper she held in her scared hand, Jas stopped and knocked. With her enhanced hearing, Jas heard a rustling followed by a sigh and some mumbling before the door was opened by a younger boy with spiky yellow hair. 

“Hey Cloud, it’s been a while, how’ve ya been?” Jas smile a bit but it fell when the door was slammed shut.

“Hey!! That was so uncalled for! Cloud!!” Jas huffed and set her hands on her hips, glaring at the metal in front of her. As Jas stood there her glare faded and her hands fell to her side before she set one against the door along with her forehead.

“Look, I’m sorry ok? For whatever made you mad at me, whether it was being declared dead or not replying to the letters for so long or if it’s just being here right now, I’m sorry. Please, Cloud, talk to me.” The blonde sighed again and took a step back, hearing the footsteps head away from the door before she glared down the metal and proceeded to kick the door in. It wasn’t her fault that her own mentor had beat the crap out of her and left her for dead, it wasn’t her fault that Yuffie couldn’t see the crack in her materia orb, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to let her younger brother ignore her without knowing why. 

The metal fell to the ground with a heavy clang as Cloud yelled in shock, having no time to react as Jas threw him over a shoulder and proceeded to walk out of the building with the other blonde yelling. People in the halls moved away from them, staring in confusion as the SOLDEIR carried the infantryman to her apartment, managing to unlock the door and throw her brother onto the couch before closing and locking it again. 

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” Cloud had managed to right himself before standing and making a run for the door, but once again, Jas grabbed him and tossing him almost effortlessly onto the couch. 

“You are going to tell me why you don’t want to talk to me. I’ve got plenty of time to wait for you to tell me.” Cloud turned his glare to the wall, ignoring his older sister, but didn’t try to run again. After about five minutes of this, Cloud found himself taking glances around the room he was now trapped in. The walls were a deep grey, mostly bare, with only a few pictures hanging from the walls. The first photo he recognized was the last family picture they had taken together before she left; the ones next to it were her with a few different people that he didn’t really recognize. Jas followed his stare and smiled a little bit, walking over and taking a few of them down. She took a seat beside Cloud and handed him one of them.

“Genesis Rhapsodos, he was the one that trained me. This one was taken the second day of my training as a 1st class candidate.” She pointed to the familiar man in the picture before handing him the next.

“Zack Fair and Angeal Hewley. Zack is a 2nd like me, and Angeal was his mentor. You’d like Zack, he’s a little on the energetic borderline annoying side, but he’s a good guy. Angeal too, was one of the people that you could basically talk to about anything. Zack had insisted that we take a photo the day we met as 1st Class candidates, so this is the photo we took.” She handed him the third and last photo after pointing out the two new people to Cloud. The final one had a few more people, but not many.

“This was taken the week before my last mission. The two on the ends are General Sephiroth, and Lazard, the Director of SOLDIER.” Cloud glanced up, amazement replacing his anger.

“You met General Sephiroth?” Jas nodded and smile a bit.

“A few times, and Zack and I each did a training course with him. He’s really brutal with training, but he’s actually a really kind person. Him, Angeal, and Genesis make up the only 1st Class in SOLDIER. Genesis showed me a virtual remake of a fight between the three of them during a spar. It was pretty amazing to watch, I’d love to show it to you sometime, but Zack accidentally deleted it because no matter how much he boasts about being able to navigate the training room computer, he really doesn’t.” The sibling shared a laugh and Cloud handed the pictures back to Jas who put them back up on the wall. While she was doing that, Cloud had noticed that there was a stack of opened letters in a pile on the table right in front of him. He pushed each one to the side before taking the whole pile into his hands, going through each one with a heavy feeling building in his chest.

“You kept them…” Jas smiled a little bit and sat down again.

“Of course I did. I might not have the time to reply, but that doesn’t mean I don’t read them. I read them each chance I get. Genesis was a sucker for action, though he didn’t like to admit it, so we were constantly doing missions in all sorts of places.” Cloud sighed and put the stack of papers back down, folding his hands and hanging his head.

“I’m sorry for being such a jerk. I just, I thought you were dead!” Jas’s eyes softened as she saw the trembling in his hands and shoulders. She reached out a hand towards him before flicking the side of his head just hard enough to hurt but not that badly. Cloud recoiled and stared at his sister with a rather comical expression of shock and confusion. He flinched when she reached out again, expecting to be flicked, but he relaxed when he felt her hand brush his hair and he opened his eyes to see his sisters gentle smile.

“Idiot, I’m not going anywhere for a while.”


	9. Chapter 9

After managing to calm her sobbing younger brother, Jas retrieved her spar white and gold outfit before returning to ShinRa the next day, answering the many questions that Cloud asked along the way. They reached the surprisingly empty elevator and she pushed the button for the SOLDIER floor instead of infantry, shushing Cloud with a smirk on her lips when he questioned her about it. Jas chuckled at the excited look on his face as she led him through the halls. The female blonde watched a flash of silver and black round a corner in front of them and she grabbed Cloud before fastwalking towards it. Round that same corner she called out.

“General Sephiroth!” Said general turned with a small frown at the female.

“How many times do I have to tell you to drop the ‘general’.” Jas laughed a little.

“Sorry, it’s just a habit. Anyway, do you have a minute?”

“Of course.” Jas smiled and pulled Cloud in front of her.

“I wanted to introduce my brother, Cloud. Cloud, Sephiroth.” Jas slung an arm around her brother’s shoulders with a smirk as Sephiroth shook hands with Cloud who was stone tense at meeting the famed Silver General. 

“Jas has told me about you before, but I’d never imagine that you’d look so strikingly similar.” Sephiroth looked between the two for a minute as both remained quiet, until Jas spoke up.”

“Yeah… it’s the hair isn’t it?” The elder ruffled the younger’s hair, making him slap her hand away in slight embarrassment as Sephiroth watched with an amused expression. 

“Zack told me that my hair reminds him of a chocobo.” Jas ran a hand through her own yellow hair with a laugh before glancing around to see that they were actually quite close to her room, another puzzling things since the blonde rarely saw Sephiroth down in this particular area.

“By the way, what are you doing down here?” The blonde questioned curiously. 

“Looking for you actually, Zack needed you for something or other.”

“Oh, alright. Thanks for the update!” The general simply nodded and turned to continue down the hall, leaving the two by themselves as Jas turned to her brother.

“You wanna see my room?” The blond shrugged and glanced at his sister, mentally noting that he was only an inch shorter than she was.

“Sure.” Leading him down a hallway, she pulled out her key and unlocked the door, pushing Cloud in. The inside was simply, a bed, nightstand, desk with chair, closet, and connected bathroom. As Jas placed the outfit in her closet, something shining on the bed caught Cloud’s attention and he stepped over to it, picking up the blood stained hairstick. 

“Hey Jas… Why does this have so much blood on it?” Humming in question, Jas turned back and plucked the metal out of her brother’s hands.

“Oh, I used this to kill one of the monsters that the Wutai soldiers were using to fight ShinRa troops; I also saved Zack in the process.” Putting the hairstick back in Cloud’s hands, the SOLDEIR noticed a few stray envelopes on her desk and sat down, using her letter opener to cut the top and fish out the paper. It was her paycheck of course, the same went for one of the other letters, but the rest were plain, no address or anything except for her name scrawled on the front. 

“I sure do have a bit of money to spare now. Hmm, I think I’ll send mom something, what do you think Cloud?” Jarred by the sudden outburst, the blond boy fumbled with the materia orb he had found and nearly dropped it, but managed to catch it after juggling it a bit. Intrigued by the new object, Jas walked over to him as he stuttered an apology.

“Where’d you find this..?” 

“Oh, um it was under the bed, kinda.” Examining the scarlet sphere carefully, Jas gripped it tightly.

“This belongs to Genesis, what’s it doing in here?” Shrugging it off, Jas tossed the materia orb onto the bed and rolled her shoulders a bit. 

“Anyway, it’s about time you get back to whatever you guys do, I’ve probably kept you long enough.” 

“Yeah, probably.” Jas chuckled as she led Cloud back to the elevators.

“I’ve got a Zack to find, so good luck with your training and such! And your marks better get up again Cloud! No brother of mine is going to get low marks on my watch!” Cloud laughed a bit as the doors closed, a last glimpse of his smiling sister before she disappeared. 

Jas laughed before turning and strutting away, mentally slapping herself when she forgot to ask Sephiroth where Zack was, but still she continued, looking around the SOLDIER floor for a while before returning to her room. 

Rummaging through her closet, Jas finally found something descent to wear besides either of her uniforms. Tossing the articles of clothing onto the bed, the blonde began undoing the straps of her harness before stripping off her top, leaving her in just a bra. As she started on the clasp of her pants, her door burst open and she froze just like the other person, who happened to be Zack, did too. After a second of complete silence, both blushed bright red before Zack slammed the door closed and stuttered an apology from the other side as Jas threw on her top and new pants along with her boots. By the time she was dressed, the blush had died down. 

Opening the door, the female immediately caught side of her fellow 2nd class SOLDIER. He had also caught sight of her and they stood side by side, not really looking at each other besides side glances.

“Um, sorry about just now, I really didn’t mean to walk in on you like that.” 

“It’s fine, accidents happen. So, Sephiroth said you wanted me for something or other?” 

“Oh yeah! Kunsel and I were going to check out a new restaurant, we wanted you to come with us. We invited Sephiroth, but he said he was busy.” The whole awkward atmosphere vanished as Jas smiled at Zack’s usual energy.

“I’d love to.” Without another word, Zack grabbed her hand and they took off down the hall, grabbing Kunsel before they jumped in the elevator down to the lobby, Jas giggling the whole time.


	10. Chapter 10

After the rather fancy dinner, Kunsel ditched the two, leaving them alone on Loveless Avenue. Jas tugged a bit at her shirt as they walked, simply enjoying each other’s silent company. 

“I’m really glad you’re back.” Zack spoke up out of the blue, jolting Jas a little bit, making her run a hand through her loose blonde bangs. 

“Well I’m glad to be back, I missed this place, but do you want to know what I missed the most?” Intrigued by her strange question, the other 2nd glanced at her.

“What?” 

“You. Your crazy, extravagant, stupid, amazing self.” Pausing for a second, Zack stared at the smiling girl with the red blush dusting her cheeks with a small smile on his own lips as he stepped up and hugged her from behind.

“Well I missed your witty remarks, as condescending as they were, and seeing you every day sitting in that same spot in the morning, sparing with you even though I always lost, and most of all just talking with you about anything and everything.” His grip tightened as Jas twisted around in his hold to hug him back, pressing her tear streaked face into his shoulder. Pulling away, Zack wiped the tears from her eyes before leaning down and pressing his lips against hers in a kiss full of longing. Jas kissed back instantly, returning his feelings tenfold before they separated with smiles and continued down the street, walking closer than before. 

A small sound coming from the alley made Jas pause as a small black kitten stumbled on wobbly legs out of the entrance of an alley towards them. Kneeling, Jas picked the small cat up and held it to her chest, running her fingers over the soft but slightly matted fur. Noticing her stop, Zack peaked over her shoulder to small little green eyes look up at him.

“A cat?”

“Yeah, a stray probably, and in need of a good bath.” Another meow and the cat snuggled up to her even more, making both chuckle.

“Let’s take him back and feed him.” 

“They don’t allow pets inside the ShinRa building, though.” A mischievous look settled in Zack’s bright eyes and he grinned.

“They can’t say anything if they don’t know we have him.” A sly smirk spread over her lips and she glanced around, seeing a small shop just across the avenue. Passing the small kitten to her friend, Jas jogged across the street and looked around the shop for a small purse that would be just large enough to fit the cat. Finally spotting one, Jas bought it and headed back to where Zack was waiting and took the cat, putting it inside the bag.

“There, it’s perfect so long as he stays quiet.”

“Sweet, let’s get some food on the way back too.” 

“Good idea, let’s go.” Together, the two set off to the ShinRa building, a small bag of cat food was tucked into the purse along with a small bottle of milk. So far the cat had been dead silent and Zack and Jas were both relieved when they made it to the elevator without being caught with the feline. But when the doors opened, and Sephiroth stood there, they froze like deer in headlights.

“Zack, Jas.” He eyed them suspiciously and stepped inside, not bothering to hit the already lit button for the SOLDIER floor. 

“Sephiroth.” They answered at the same time before silence overtook them. After a few seconds, a small ‘meow’ echoed through the confined space, and Jas went rigid as Zack’s eyes snapped to her with a mix of fear and utter terror. Sephiroth stood motionless for a second before hitting the emergency stop and turning to face them with arms crossed.

“Jas, Zack.”

“Yes?” They chimed, trying to act normal as Jas slowly slid the bag behind her and out of sight. 

“Where is it?”

“Where’s what?” The general’s eyes narrowed at the pair.

“The cat.”

“Cat? What cat? There’s no cat, animals aren’t allowed inside.” Jas rambled, snapping her mouth shut with a sharp nudge from Zack. They both smiled, but Sephiroth’s frown deepened as he held out his hand. Slowly lowering her head, Jas took the bag off her shoulder and placed it in her superior’s gloved hand. 

Flipping it open, the general stared down at the black kitten emotionlessly for a few tense seconds before closing the bag and turning away with it outstretched to the pair. 

“It’s your responsibility.” Was the only thing said as Jas took the purse with a look of shock, awe, and slight confusion as Sephiroth turned the elevator back on and they continued up to their floor. When the doors opened the two teens shot out, shouting thanks back to the silver haired general who simply shook his head with a sigh escaping his smiling lips. Entering Jas’s room, since it was closest, she gently removed the cat and set it on the bed, leaving it with Zack as she headed to find a small plate or anything to put the food in. 

Returning with a small dish in hand, Jas returned to find Zack kneeling by the side of her bed playing with the cat, which was attacking his bare hand with small claws and teeth. Laughing, the blonde set the now full dish down and knelt down on the opposite side of the small bed, brushing her hand through the ebony fur. 

“What should we call him?” She questioned, glancing behind the cat to Zack who caught her gaze and shrugged.

“What do you want to call him?” With a shrug, Jas picked up the cat and headed into the bathroom, filling the sick with lukewarm water and setting the cat in it as Zack watched from over her shoulder. Together, they washed it and wrapped it in a small fluffy hand towel before returning to the bed and sitting on opposite sides with the kitten crawling around between them. 

“What about Jack?” Zack perked up when Jas spoke but continued stroking the small animal.

“Jack?” He cast her a questioning glance and she smiled.

“Yeah, is you mix the first part of my name with the end of yours, you get Jack.” A small laugh broke his lips as Zack nodded lightly.

“Sounds like a great idea, I like it.” Jas nodded to and lay down on her side, facing the middle as she scratched the newly named Jack behind the ear. Zack’s eyes flicked between Jas and Jack every couple minutes as the blonde’s strokes slowed and her eyes closed gently. Her breathing evened out and the kitten curled up next to her collar bone as Zack lightly brushed the scar on her hand with his fingertips, careful not to wake her. 

“You sure do know how to put a guy through hell, don’t you?” He mutter lightly before standing and turning the main light off then returning to the bed, kissing Jas’s cheek lightly before laying down on his side and closing his eyes to let sleep overcome him.


	11. Chapter 11

About three months passes by slowly, with both 2nds going out on various simple missions from time to time just to ease off the growing boredom and anticipation of what Genesis’s next move was going to be. 

Jas was just finishing up a training sequence when her phone sounded at a new message. With a sigh, she wiped the sweat from her brow and pulled the object from the side pocket of her pants, flicking it open to read the text from Lazard. It was basically telling her to report to the briefing room, so she headed out to the elevator and up to the SOLDEIR floor without a word. Zack entered the briefing room just seconds after she did, smiling at her before turning to Lazard who sat in his usual seat. 

“Any word on Angeal?”

“No, he hasn’t contacted his family either.” Jas simply took a seat and listened to the two converse.

“So, what’s this about?”

“A new assignment. I’m sending you both to the hometown of out missing SOLDIER 1st Class, Genesis.” 

“Have his parents said anything?” Jas questioned, leaning her arms on the table top.

“No, they said they haven’t had any contact with Genesis whatsoever, but, they can’t be trusted.” Zack shot the Director a confused look.  
“Why?”

“There’re his family.” Zack hummed in understanding as Jas leaned back, crossing her arms over her chest.

“I’ve already dispatched some staff, but we’ve lost contact, so I want you to investigate. He will go with you.” Jas and Zack looked over to follow the Directors line of sight to see a suited man enter, standing before the small group as Zack moved next to Jas. 

“Tseng, of the Turks.” He introduced himself, eyes narrowing on the two SOLDIERs for a moment. Zack shrugged halfheartedly.

“This job is looking really gloomy.” Jas shook her head, hitting Zack’s arm lightly before extending her hand to the newcomer.

“SOLDIER 2nd Class, Jasmine Strife, but call me Jas.” Tseng nodded to the blonde, shaking her hand firmly before Zack repeated his follow SOLDIER in greeting.

“Let me know when you’re ready to go.” Jas and Zack nodded in sync before they headed out to get ready, Jas gathering her best Materia before heading don’t to the infantry floor.

It had become a habit of hers to check with Cloud every couple weeks at least and when she was leaving for a mission that seemed highly dangerous. She knocked on the metal door, which had been replaced since the last one was too damaged to fix completely, and her brother opened it moments later.

“Hey, leaving again?” 

“Yeah, not sure how this one’s going to go though, so no jumping to worse case scenarios, alright?” The siblings shared a laugh as Cloud nodded.

“Got it, I’ll see you when you get back.” With a nod, Jas said her farewell and headed back to the briefing room where Tseng stood, Lazard gone, and Zack still yet to arrive. They waited in silence for a few minutes before the door finally opened.

“And I thought women were the ones who took forever to get ready for something.” The blonde smirked as Zack shot her a half glare.

“Whatever Jas, you don’t count.”

“Are you ready to go?” Tseng asked and Zack nodded.

“A routine assignment, no sweat.”

“I wonder, originally, Sephiroth was assigned to this mission, which means that it’s a top priority matter. You need to be alert, or you’ll fail.” 

“And Sephiroth?”

“Refusing to go, apparently.” Zack threw up his hands in irritation. 

“What? What’s with that? They spoil him too much.” Jas chuckled and shot Zack a look.

“I dare you to say that to his face.” Instantly his face turned to terror and he shook his head. 

“No thanks!” Jas laughed and Tseng chuckled before they all headed out to the airfield where a helicopter was already prepped and ready to go. The three sat in back, pulling on headsets as they took off. 

Jas spaced for most of the flight, thinking about all the things that could happen when they reached their destination. There was a possibility that they would run into Genesis himself, or even Angeal, though he wasn’t much of a concern for her compared to Genesis and what he had done. Her fingers unconsciously traced over the scar covered by white cloth as she recalled the injuries inflicted on her by her own mentor, the man she looked up to. What would she do if Genesis was there? Part of her wanted to pay him back for what he did, but another part was telling her that there was a reason she was still alive and not dead in the forests of Wutai. 

Her thoughts continued to contemplate different ideas until the chopper touched down just outside a small village and Jas jumped out followed by her two companions. The trees formed an arch over the pathway that led to the village and Jas couldn’t help but think that there was a sort of familiarity to them, even though she was sure she had never seen such trees before in her life.

“Weird looking trees.” Zack’s comment broke her from her thoughts and she hummed in agreement.

“These are Banora White trees, more commonly known as dumbapples.” 

“Wait, that means we’re in Banora?” Zack looked around and Jas stared at him curiously, not really knowing what he was talking about.

“Angeal’s hometown?” Jas blinked in surprise, having not known that Genesis and Angeal had grown up in the same town.

“That’s correct. Angeal and Genesis have known each other for a very long time.” The blonde hummed as they continued until there was a rustling among the trees and a few of the soldiers they had seen in Wutai appeared. Drawing their blades, the pair cut them down without a hitch, fighting through even more of them until they reached the village of Banora.


	12. Chapter 12

Jas lost count of how many enemies she defeated by the time the even reached the main center of the village, but she wasn’t really thinking about that, Tseng has asked them to check if they could find Angeal’s parents while he checked out the makeshift grave outside mansion Genesis had once lived in. 

There were several building, all looking the same, placed in a semi-circle. 

“Start at the ends and meet at the middle?” Zack suggested, looking out from where they stood on a hill. 

“Yeah.” Was the only response he got from the blonde SOLDEIR before she started towards the closest house, opening the door to find it completely deserted. The same when for the next houses she checked until she reached Zack, leaving the last house. 

Opening the door, Jas and Zack saw an elderly lady sitting at a table. She smiled when they entered, even though the pair felt a little awkward for just barging into someone’s home. Jas glanced around the room, seeing the familiar oversized blade resting against the wall. 

“Oh, hello Ma’am! Are you Angeal’s mother? I’m Zack and this is Jasmine.” 

“Are you Zack, the Puppy?” 

“Excuse me?” The woman chuckled.

“My son wrote to me about you once; zero attention span, restless as a little puppy.” Jas smothered a snicker as the woman laughed little and Zack crossed his arms with a huff, muttering something under his breath. 

“You aren’t here together with Genesis are you?”

“We aren’t, don’t worry.” 

“What’s going on with my son?”

“We aren’t sure.” Jas said softly. 

“Genesis came here, about a month ago, with an army of cohorts. They took the lives of so many of the townspeople. Genesis, he used to be such a good boy…” She trailed off as Jas glanced around one last time before leaving Zack to talk to Angeal’s mother; walking around the surrounding building looking for anything else that might help them out. As she paced around the small area of houses, her thoughts wondered to random things until her eye caught the reflection of light of a familiar red orb on the ground near the corner of one of the abandoned structures. 

Crouching, Jas brushed the dirt away and lifted the crimson materia, holding it up to better examine it. It was another of Genesis’ summon materia, like the one Cloud had come across in her room. 

Tensing, Jas whipped around and slashed her blade across the chest of the soldier that had attempted to strike her from behind; luckily, she had just noticed his reflection in the materia before he could kill her. 

Having heard the commotion, Zack rushed out of the house and to her side when he saw the body.

“Hey! You alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Tucking the orb into the new belt pouch she had gotten, Jas waited as her partner answered a call from Tseng, telling them to head to the cliff overlooking the apple juice factory. The path was littered with Genesis copies, but they moved along at a steady pace until they stood by Tseng overlooking the factory. 

Jas’ thoughts drifted away again, tuning out the conversation between her two companions until a snap in front of her face brought her back to reality, seeing Zack give her a look of concern.

“You sure you’re alright, Jas? You’re a little spacy today.” 

“I’m fine, just a little… I don’t know, nervous? Maybe?” 

“Well get it together a little, don’t need you getting killed again.” She shot him a half glare at his playful tone before they headed down the small path and into the building. Jas stayed toward the back of their small group as Zack glanced over his shoulder at her every couple minutes. At one point, Tseng separated from them to check out a computer they came across, leaving Jas and Zack to move on without him, finding themselves in a large room on the lower floor when a familiar voice drifted through the silence, reciting a familiar poem. 

“ _Infinite in mystery is the gift of the goddess_  
We seek it thus, and take to the sky  
Ripples form over the water's surface  
The wandering soul knows no rest.” 

“LOVELESS, Act I.” Jas murmured under her breath, a habit from listening to those lines over and over through the entirety of her training with the crimson clad Commander. Genesis’ eyes snapped to hers, it was as if he didn’t expect her to be there, but his eyes trailed back to his book after a second as he released a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“Jas, it’s good to see you again.” 

“I want to say the same, Genesis, but I’m not sure yet.” Genesis looked up to Zack, an amused smirk lifting his lips when the 2nd Class glared at him.

“Calm down, Zack the Puppy.” His condescending tone irritated him, but Zack didn’t show it as Tseng reappeared, moving to examine the tank that stood off to one side. 

“The grave at the house, we found some of our people there as well.”

“It wasn’t hard to send false reports, just some mild threats.” Tseng moved forward, but stopped when Zack stood up again.

“They would have done that anyway, at least your parents would have.” The 1st Class glared at him before standing up from where he sat in front of the large windows.

“My ‘parents’ betrayed me. They had always betrayed me, from the very beginning. What do you know?” A familiar green glow lit up his hand as he spoke and Jas’ heart skipped a beat as he shot the ball of flames into Tseng, sending him slamming back into the tank.

“Tseng!” Jas yelled, moving towards him as he fell to his knees, suit singed and still burning in some places. Zack’s blade was out in a second, but it was removed from his grasp as Angeal entered the scene, standing between the two as Jas watched for a moment, cure materia in hand. Her attention focused completely on the injured Turk as the burns disappeared slowly. Footsteps rushed from the room and Jas helped Tseng to his feet before following after Zack, stopping when a hoard of monsters appeared before them, but Tseng took them quickly, letting the two head closer to the village. Of course, that was after the Turk told them about the missiles that were about to blow the place to hell.

“Jas! Get to Angeal’s mother! I’ll handle the missiles!” 

“Got it!” The blonde dashed down the mountain path, leaving her comrade with a silent ‘good luck’. As she sprinted past the fallen gate, a crimson blade appeared in front of her, ready to take her head from her shoulders, but she dropped to her knees, throwing her headed back as she slid under the blade and used the momentum to slide back into a standing position with her sword in hand. Genesis chuckled lightly as he readied his weapon, mirroring his former student’s stance in preparation to battle.


	13. Chapter 13

At Jas stood before her mentor, a memory flashed before her eyes. One of the first she had of the crimson clad man.

_~A young girl of 13 stood, long and heavy blade in hand with nervous anxiety swimming in her eyes with an expression of uncertainty as she faced down this man, her teacher. She lunged forwards, trying to take the man by surprise, and he was indeed surprised by her sudden burst of speed, but it would take a lot more than that to land a solid hit right off. He swung his crimson blade to meet hers and she immediately jumped back again before advancing once again. A 19 year old Genesis chuckled at her energy as he once more blocked her attack, retaliating this time with a strike that she easily dodged before swinging swiftly at his legs, scowling when he simply jumped over the blade then kicked her in the back, sending her stumbling forward. Her pale blue eyes flashed as she grit her teeth and attacked, instantly having to dodge a barrage of fire attacks. The 1st had to admit that she was doing fairly well, despite her lack of mako enhancements, since it was yet to be determined if she would actually be allowed to enter SOLDIER. This was a the final test, a combat skills test to gauge how well she would endure the mako injections, if she passed, she would be the first female to ever join SOLDIER._

_For a moment, the two stood facing off, neither making a move, simply watching and waiting. With a smirk, Genesis moved behind her in a second, impressed when she ducked down under his slash and twisted around to swing at his torso, which he gracefully jumped out of range of before sending another wall of fire at her. Granted, he was holding back, but she was still keeping up with him._

_Jas grunted in pain for the third time as she was send to the ground. The spar had been going for about fifteen minutes now, with Genesis increasing his attack strength to push her to the limit. Standing, she rubbed a dribble of blood from her chin and steeled herself to counter the attack already headed for her, but she was too tired to dodge properly and the swing grazed her arm, leaving a thin, shallow cut. Still she moved to attack, throwing swings left and right in quick succession to try and land a hit on the still uninjured man._

_Finally, after several more cuts being landed on her, Jas collapsed on the ground, unable to move. Tears welled up in her eyes, she was sure she had failed and would be sent back to her home. Seeing this, Genesis sheathed his rapier and moved over to her as she breathed heavily, laying on her front with her face turned away so that she wouldn’t face him. Chuckling, Genesis pulled his phone out and sent out a quick message before pulling the girl to her feet, but she still refused to meet his glowing blue eyes._

_“You still have a long way to go. You’re slow, sloppy, leaving to many openings.” Jas flinched at each criticism sent at her, but stood her ground even as a tear rolled down her cheek._

_“I can’t wait for our first official training session.” Jas looked up at the smirking Genesis with disbelief and hope mingling in her blue hues._

_“Wait, you mean…?”_

_“You passed Jasmine. You do have a long way to go, but I’m going to help you, and maybe one day you’ll be able to match me in a real battle.” A small smile replaced the smirk on his lips as Jas beamed widely up at him._

_“Thank you so much, Sir!!!!” At the tittle, he scowled a bit and bopped her on the head with a white leather bound book that he had pulled from his coat._

_“No. If you are to be my apprentice, you call me Genesis, not ‘sir’.” He scolded her lightly as she rubbed the spot on her head._

_“Alright, but you have to call me Jas, Genesis.” The crimson clad man nodded before headed out of the training room._

_“ _Infinite in mystery is the gift of the goddess__  
We seek it thus, and take to the sky  
Ripples form over the water's surface  
The wandering soul knows no rest.” At this, Jas tilted her head in confusion, the lines unfamiliar to her. When he heard only silence, Genesis made a mental note to have the young girl read the epic he adored, and without turning back he called out to her. 

_“We’ll meet here every morning at 7am sharp starting tomorrow; I’ll see you then, Jas.”~_

Blinking away the memory, Jas couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of accomplishment. She was facing her mentor in a real battle. There was no way she could possibly win against a full-fledged 1st Class SOLDIER with years of experience, the man that had taught her everything she knew and probably knew more about her than even she did, but she was going to give it her all against him. 

And so she readied herself, eyes scanning his entire body before lunging forwards, her blade meeting his in a flurry of sparks as they exchanged blows one after another. She flipped back out of the reach of his blade, putting her flexibility to the test and using a string of contortion-based strikes that she had been practicing in her free time. It had actually been Kunsel’s idea, using her natural flexibility as a woman to slip past her enemy’s defense to strike a weak spot. She had taken that idea and expanded it, incorporating it into her fighting style as much as possible.

Growing frustrated at the avoidance of his blows, Genesis threw a fire spell directly at her, but once more she dodged before setting of her signature thunder strike towards him. 

And so they were back to facing off, blades of crimson and grey held at the ready as they slowly circled. Finally, they both tensed and lunged past each other in a last ditch effort to defeat the other. When they came to a standstill on opposite sides of the square, Genesis winced at the shallow cut on his cheek as a drop of blood streaked down. Jas however, dropped to a knee as a massive gash opened up on her right shoulder, blood soaking her shirt from the gaping wound. With eyes hidden behind blonde locks, Jas staggered to her feet as a commotion distracted both of them. Zack and Angeal appeared from his home, Angeal picking himself up off the ground as Zack stood over him.

There was a ringing in her ears that prevented Jas from focusing on their words, but she still didn’t move from her spot, right arm hanging limp with the pain from her new injury and trying to keep a hold of her blade. Her vision began to grow dark as she struggled to remain standing, watching as Genesis used a summon against Zack, who reappeared a few moments later.

“Summons aren’t supposed to be used like this!! What happened to dreams?! And honor?!” The enraged 2nd demanded, holding the scarlet materia firmly as Genesis stayed facing away from him.

“We are monsters.” The crimson commander swung his arm out and a massive black wing expanded from his shoulder. In that instant, his eyes locked with Jas’ and in that instant, his guard slipped and Jas saw everything he had tried to keep hidden.

“We have neither dreams, nor honor.” He eyes trailed to the ground before he took to the sky, growing ever smaller until he was no longer visible, even to the SOLDEIR’s eyes. Jas’ eyes stayed to the sky until Zack called out to her. He didn’t have time to say anything as the distance sound of helicopters drew closer and his phone rang with a call from Tseng telling them to get out before they were caught in the air strike. 

Throwing her unharmed arm over his shoulder, Zack supported Jas and they just made it out of the trees when the missiles rained down in a shower of fire and thundering explosions. Jas watched with sadness as the apple trees were consumed by the flames before Tseng tugged her into the chopper along with Zack.


	14. Chapter 14

Sitting on the edge of a bed in the medical wing, Jas was in deep thought, eyes pointed to the floor bust focused on nothing. Her blonde hair was free flowing around her, pooling on the bed or hanging down her front, her top was replaced by a traditional 2nd class uniform while her pants and skirt were still in place. 

The fire of Banora burned behind her eyes as she thought over everything that had happened just hours ago. The look in Genesis’ eyes, the determination, the pride, the pain, the guilt; something inside her was screaming to reach out, to help him, even if she didn’t know what was really going on. Her hands unconsciously began to plate thin strands of hair, a habit she had grown up with. 

Sephiroth sat down in the chair beside the bed, waiting for her to notice him, thinking it best to leave her to herself for now. A few minutes later, Cloud entered the room, nodded respectfully to the General, who nodded back, before turning to his sister and watching for a minute, seeming to contemplate something. Finally he slowly reached out, grasping a lock of her hair and, with a blank expression, yanked it down hard enough to tilt her head to the side as well. Sephiroth’s eyes widened a fraction, but he stayed stone still as Jas’s movements halted and she blinked a few times. Recovered from her daze, Jas jumped when she noticed that her brother stood in front of her and Sephiroth was simply staring at the sibling in silence. 

“Oh! Hey, what’s up?” She rubbed her partially healed shoulder and looked between the two in the room.

“I just came to visit before I headed back to training.” Cloud explained and Jas faintly nodded.

“And I should probably be getting back, so I’ll come around later.”

“Alright, see ya then.” Jas smiled as her brother left, turning her attention to the silver haired SOLDIER when the door closed. 

“Hello Gen-” She flinched when he suddenly glared at her, irritation written all over his features.

“I mean, Sephiroth.” She quickly corrected herself and he relaxed again. 

“Jas, how’s your shoulder?” The blonde shrugged and rolled it, wincing slightly.

“Better, not healed fully yet, but I’ll be fine.” He nodded in understanding before locking his eyes with hers, a strange intensity in them that Jas struggled not to flinch away from. 

“What happened?” 

“Um… what?” Jas shifted in slightly as Sephiroth sighed.

“I can tell something happened with Genesis, besides the fight, and it’s got you wrapped up in your head.” Eyes on the floor once again, Jas let out a sad sigh, fiddling with her fingers.

“After our battle, after Angeal left, he showed Zack and I the black wing he had. He called himself a monster, but when I looked at him, he cracked and I saw everything he hides in his eyes. He called himself a monster, but a monster wouldn’t feel what I saw, Sephiroth.” She lifted her eyes to meet his and he said nothing, letting her continue.

“A monster wouldn’t feel guilt. I don’t think Genesis really wants to hurt anyone; there has to be another reason for all this, something deeper than Genesis alone.” 

“I see. You know, you really are just like Genesis.” A smirk tugged at the man’s lips as a strange heat flushed Jas’ cheeks.

“Um, thanks, I guess.” She brushed a strand of hair back behind her ear as Sephiroth chuckled and stood.

“You’re welcome. Anyway, get some rest, Zack said he’d stop by later, and I have a meeting with Lazard.” 

“Alright, thank you for listening.” He gave her a small smile before nodded and heading out the door, leaving Jas alone once again. Laying back on the pillows, Jas stared at the ceiling in silent contemplation for a few minutes before she began to doze off. She only got about ten minutes of good rest when an earsplitting alarm snapped her awake. Furious about the sudden interruption of the first good rest she’d had in days, Jas threw herself off the bed and stormed down the hall, grabbing her sword from the storage units just inside the medical wing, she headed to the sound of people yelling from the main lobby. 

The main entrance was flooded with enemy robots and Genesis Copies as she stood on the floor above, anger materializing in bursts of electricity that lifted her hair and made her blade glow as the mastered thunder materia inside it activated along with the haste in the pommel. To an unenhanced, it was like watched a bolt of lightning go from one side of the room to another, a flashed of bright yellow light that seemed to strike every enemy in the vicinity, followed by the clap of thunder that rocked the entire building. 

Zack, who had just made it down to the entrance, let out a short whistle when he saw the entrance was already cleared. Jas rested her blade on her shoulder as she finally reeled in her fury. Without a word, Jas headed out into the city, relying mostly on materia than her blade as she struck down yet another copy with a ball of fire. 

Suddenly, her phone, which she had completely forgotten about over the last couple weeks, began to ring. The melody of a violin was cut off as she answered the call, slightly surprised by the voice that came from the other end.

“Hello?”

“Jas, where are you?” 

“Sephiroth? I’m in Sector 4, why?” 

“Get to Mako reactor 5, quickly.” He ordered before ending the call, leaving a confused Jas no choice in the matter but to head to the reactor. Which didn’t take very long at all as she stepped through the entrance and made her way through the twists and ladders until she spotted Sephiroth and Zack waiting for her. Sephiroth was just finishing telling Zack about the sparing mission between the three 1st where Genesis was injured when she cut in.

“Angeal really lectured you on that one, didn’t he? You guys gonna tell me what we’re all gathered here for?” 

“Indeed he did. Anyway, we need someone to stall if the military shows up.” A wicked twinkle entered her eyes and Zack found himself slowly backing away from her.

“Alright, I’m in, but you do have to explain everything that happens, since I have a feeling this has to do with Genesis and Angeal.” The two exchanged a glance before turning back to the female and nodding in agreement before taking off further into the reactor while Jas stayed, using a blizzard materia to freeze over the ladders to the level below her. 

The blonde took to sitting on the rail, ears alert for any movement below or above her. Nothing of note occurred for a while until she felt the familiar rock of a far off explosion, a few minutes later, Sephiroth reappeared, a mix of concern and slight irritation on his features as he gestured for the blonde to follow after him. 

“Where’s Zack?” 

“I’m not sure yet, but if I had to guess by the broken grate it the floor, somewhere in sector 5.” Jas paused for a moment, eyes widening a fraction before she shrugged and followed after the silver haired general, at this point, she was too tired to really care about anything and Zack was known for getting out of things without major injury.


	15. Chapter 15

Back at ShinRa, Jas followed Sephiroth to check on Lazard, finding the man perfectly fine and unharmed.

“Jas, I see you’re healing up just fine.” The tired blonde nodded and leaned against the wall, seeming her exhaustion, Lazard chuckled.

“I’ll make this short; you’re 1st Class now, Jas. Congratulations.” Jolting off the wall in surprise, Jas blinked. 

“Really?” 

“Yes, I’ve very impressed by how well you handled the situation in Banora, and Tseng told me only the best. You’ve earned 1st class, Jas.” The newly proclaimed 1st Class nodded to herself a few times.

“Thank you, Director.” A small smile crept onto her lips for an instant before it faded once again. She had hoped to be given such a tittle and watch Genesis roll his eyes overdramatically as she celebrated with him after bribing him with a showing of LOVELESS. Zack would beg her to spar again, making Angeal laugh at his former student’s usual over excited-ness. They would take another picture and Jas would send it back home along with a picture of her and Cloud together. 

Lazard noticed her sudden somber mood and cleared his throat to break her from her stupor.

“I commend you both on a job well done, but please be on alert for anymore sudden attacks from Genesis’ forces; we don’t know what he has planned. In the meantime, you may do as you wish.” The two nodded and left the Directors office, taking the elevator down to the usual floor, but as Jas moved to return to her current room, Sephiroth surprisingly followed her. He noticed her questioning glance and smirked a bit.

“Genesis had a room prepared in the 1st Class wing for you. Decorated it and everything; he spent a week on it. And just so you know, the 1st Class rooms are more like apartments.” The blonde nodded as she entered her 2nd Class room and gathered up all her things, which wasn’t much, just clothes, soaps, sword cleaning kit, materia collection, and a few odds and ends that she had collected from various missions. One thing she didn’t expect was to find a single ebony feather lying on her pillow. Thinking back, she could faintly recall seeing Zack with such a feather before they left Banora. Disregarding it, Jas tucked the feather into her hair, securing it with an old ruby clip. 

Gathering her things together and shouldering the bags, she left the room. Sephiroth said nothing when she saw the feather, simply nodded to her and began to make his way to the 1st Class wing with her following. He pulled a keycard from his pocket and unlocked the door, holding it open for Jas who walked in and gazed around with awe. The walls were a deep grey, gold trim around the top and bottom of the walls, the carpet was also a rich gold and white mixed together, a white leather couch and loveseat sat in the main room with redwood bookcases on two walls and a TV on the third. A little island separated the living room from the small kitchen that was the same basic theme as the living room, deep grey with gold marble countertops and white handles for everything. 

Jas dropped her bags on the couch as Sephiroth spoke from where he stood in the doorway.

“I’m not sure what all Genesis put in here, so you’ll have to look around yourself, your current keycard should work to unlock this room, at least until you get your new one.”

“Thanks, Sephiroth.” She turned to him with a sincere smile on her lips and he nodded before leaving her door to head to his own room. Opening the first of two doors, she could a small but decent sized bathroom in white and gold, the second door was a bedroom. Staying true to the rest of the colors, the carpet and walls matched the living room, the furniture was white with gold, and the bed itself was white as well, with gold bedding and grey pillows. The only thing that didn’t match was the crimson book that rested atop a large red wrapped box, both sitting on the middle of the bed. 

Taking a seat, she pulled the book into her lap to trace the gold letters on the cover; it was a copy of LOVELESS. With a reminiscent sigh, she put the book aside and tugged the surprisingly heavy box closer and removed the wrapping to find a letter taped to the outside of it. 

_-Jas,_  
If you’re reading this it means you’ve finally made it to 1st Class, congratulations. I want you to know, that I do wish I could have shared such a moment with you, but there’s something I must do and I’ve most likely already started. Whatever happens between us, I am truly sorry. And when everything is said and done, you can find a way to forgive me.  
-Genesis 

Putting down the paper, Jas slowly moved to the box and undid the latches on the side to find a bundle of clothing on the inside. The first thing she pulled out was a coat, white leather with golden pauldrons, a white turtleneck with a dark grey SOLDIER emblem, white leather gloves with gold edging, and white pants made from a similar material to the ones she usually wore, but this felt more durable. There was another note at the bottom told her to look under the bed, and when she did, she found a pair of heeled, knee high boots, and another box, this one containing a pure white blade of about the same weight and length of her current one. There were two materia slots and the blade was razor sharp, obviously brand new.

Setting the entire thing out, Jas couldn’t help the happy feeling that tugged at her heart. Such a custom outfit and blade must have cost a lot, and the apartment was done exactly how she would have done it herself. With her mind drifting back to the letter, Jas stripped and replace her clothes piece by piece with the ones Genesis had gotten her. It fit perfectly and even had a magnetic holster for her blade much like her other clothes.

Putting her hair in a high ponytail, Jas secured her feather and clip in her hair just as another alarm went off. Grasping her new blade, she swung it around a little bit before placing on her back with a smirk of satisfaction then headed out to face the new wave of enemies, feeling her energy restored with vigor that sent her dashing down the halls after she received an update on enemy locations throughout the building via PHS.


	16. Chapter 16

Jas slipped a thunder and fire materia, both mastered, into her new blade, using them to charge her sword and take out the Genesis Copies at a faster pace than she would have thought herself capable of. On a higher level, she threw a thunder spell at a copy that was coming up behind Sephiroth, who rounded quickly at the sound of the man hitting the ground. When he saw her standing there, his eyes roamed over her new outfit before nodding slightly just as two figures burst through the window. 

Zack and Angeal rushed towards them, both taking a moment to regard Jas’ new outfit before returning to the matter at hand.

“It’s safe to assume that Hollander ordered Genesis to eliminate Hojo.” Angeal contemplated.

“The head of the science department?” Zack questioned.

“Yes, he believed that Hojo robbed him of his rightful position.”

“So he’ll be targeting the Science Department floor above us.” Jas piped up and Angeal nodded as Sephiroth snapped about forgetting about Hojo, to which Angeal commented about him being in his ‘usual mood’.

“Sephiroth, take care of the lower floors, I’ll take care of things outside, Jas and Zack, you two will go up, Hojo will be your responsibilities.” With a synchronized nod, the two raced up the stairs to the upper floor where Hojo was working around his lab without a care in the world. He didn’t even glanced up at his work with they entered, just mumbled a few things about his work being interrupted. 

Zack and Jas hung back away from him, trying to keep out of his way as much as possible, and silence reigned between them until Zack finally spoke up.

“So, what’s with the new outfit?” 

“Found it in my new room, it was a gift from Genesis when I made 1st, though he must have prepared it quite some time ago.” 

“Looks nice, like a white version of Genesis.” With a chuckle, she glanced over at him.

“Should have seen the copy of LOVELESS he left me, it’s bound in red leather.” Zack rolled his eyes and huffed.

“Of course it is.” Jas laughed little then fell silence, taking in the sight of the lab as the professor worked on as if they weren’t even there. Out of the corner of her eye, Jas noticed something black floating towards the ground and turned to find a familiar feather there, a second later, an even more familiar figure descended, landed silently with his rapier already pointed at Hojo, who didn’t even blink at the potential threat standing behind him. Zack was there in a second, sword aimed at Genesis as Jas opted to power up a master level thunder materia spell, holding the ball of electricity tightly with her sword clutched in her left hand. 

“Well look who’s here. Hollander sent you, correct? You think that if you obey Hollander, he’ll stop your body from degrading, is that it?” His word struck the blonde, she hadn’t heard about anything like that. Her whirling thoughts made her miss whatever Hojo said next, but she didn’t miss the indignant scoff from the red clad SOLDIER. In the next moment, Angeal appeared, ordered Genesis to stop, which led to everyone but Jas lowering their weapons. 

“ _My friend, the fates are cruel  
There are no dreams, no honor remains  
The arrow has left the bow of the goddess._” Zack snapped at Hojo when he commented about the two 1sts being part of a ‘freak show’, but he was otherwise ignored.

“LOVELESS, Act IV.” Jas answered, hoping to herself that the familiarity would calm some of the tension in the room as she held the active spell out of sight. Genesis looked back at her, mako bright eyes lingering on the feather before looking back to Angeal. 

“Where two friends challenge each other to a duel.” That drew the attention of everyone else, not expecting the scientist to know such details. Undeterred by the attention, he continued.

“An ancient epic; I read it thinking it might aid my research, but…pure drivel.” 

“How does the duel end?” Angeal inquired, stepping forward.

“Unknown. The last act is missing and yet to be discovered.” 

“There are various theories…” Genesis trailed off as he walked some ways down the metal platform that ended at a machine, behind that was a wall. He turned with a flourish, charging up a fire spell; Jas gave her hidden spell a jolt of more energy to match the power he had summoned, but he instead turned and shot the condensed fire ball at the wall, opening a massive hole.

“The mysterious Gift of the Goddess, what does it mean? For us at least?” Without another word, he took to the sky with Angeal and Genesis in hot pursuit, leaving Jas to recall the thunder materia, instead casting a low level blizzard to stop the resulting fire from spreading. The blonde stood at the edge of the gaping hole, tense as she felt Hojo’s curious stare on her back. 

“Am I so curious, Professor?” In a matter that almost made him seem uninterested in the entire matter that had just transpired, Hojo moved around the room, examining the damages.

“You are, actually. You seem to be on the side of SOLDIER, but at the same time, you seem like the type to be very loyal to someone like Genesis. I’m simply wondering, why?” Mulling the thought over, Jas looked out over before simultaneously pulling a scarlet materia from her pocket and turning to face Hojo with an elegant flourish of her leather coat. 

“Because I’m his student.” She cast the materia behind her, summoning a Bahamut into being before jumping forward, landing on the beasts shoulder as it flew away from the ShinRa building. Just as Jas had predicted in her head, Genesis had unleashed a summon to fight Zack. Giving the Bahamut a silent command, it rose high into the air, collecting a massive amount of energy to fire off a Mega Flare that hit the Bahamut Fury dead on. Diving straight towards the enemy, Jas jumped from the Bahamut moments before it impacted, hitting the ground in a roll a few yards away from a stunned Zack. 

Sword in hand, the blonde 1st Class didn’t bother stepping in as her summon tore Genesis’ to pieces; leaving it to fall to the ground and vanish back into its materia sphere. The remaining Bahamut snorted before turning to Jas, as if asking what to do next, but she simply smiled and nodded before holding the materia and releasing the cast.

“Well that was awesome!” Zack exclaimed moments later.

“Just a summon, where are Genesis and Angeal?” She looked around but couldn’t see either of them, so she turned to the lone materia and pocketed it.

“I don’t know, looks like they took off while I was fighting the summon.” With a sigh, Jas moved to sit atop the guardrail of the deserted street they were on. Zack took a second before standing beside her, waiting in silence before she leaned forwards with a curious expression on her face. 

“So what happened to you? Sephiroth said you fell below the reactor, that’s the slums, isn’t it?” Jas herself had only been below the plate a total of four times, since Genesis wanted her doing the more eccentric and challenging missions rather than ‘waste time on a boring and dirty slum mission that’s so easy an army cadet could do it’ according to Genesis.

“Oh, yeah. I kinda fell through the room of an old abandoned, well mostly abandoned, church and into a patch of flowers.” 

“Flowers? I thought flowers didn’t grow in Midgar.” 

“Me either until I saw them for myself.” He shrugged, a small smile pulling at his lips that Jas couldn’t help but notice.

“That doesn’t explain why you took so long getting back, what else happened?” She inquired and Zack’s face brightened before it fell a little bit.

“I uh, I met someone.” 

“A girl?” 

“Jas, I-” He started to apologize, thinking back to the night they had gone out with Kunsel, who had ditched them shortly after dinner, but shut cut him off with a look of amusement painting her features, honest to Gaia amusement. 

“You better introduce me to her at some point, can’t go around without knowing who my best friend is into.” Hearing that, Zack relaxed and together they returned to ShinRa, the excited puppy of a SOLDIER recalling every detail of the girl known as Aerith. It was a pleasant distraction for both, but they still had the sinking feeling of being left behind by their mentors once again.


	17. Chapter 17

When night came, Jas found herself in shorts and a tanktop, heading to the training room with her blade in hand. The cold of the metal seeped into her bare feet, chilling her slender legs as she put her sword against the wall before adjusting the setting on her phone then initializing the simulation for hand-to-hand combat practice. 

The ground still felt cold even though now it took on the appearance of well stamped down dirt, a clearing in the middle of a vast, life-filled green forest. It was one of the least used of the area simulations, but it was her favorite by far, second only to the vast underground cave that Genesis himself favored for its serene waterfall that fell into a small pond, which he enjoyed shoving her into whenever she lost concentration. 

Refocusing on the training at hand, she swung out, impacting with the gut of an enemy soldier that had tried to sneak up behind her. Suddenly it seemed like she was completely surrounded, swinging with everything she had until she actually felt herself tiring, panting even, when she landed the final elbow to the face for the last enemy and the simulation stopped itself. 

Retrieving her blade, Jas was about to start up another simulation when the door opened, making her pause as the silver haired 1st entered the room. It was strange seeing him in something besides his usual black leather, though what he wore when he entered was still black; a plain sleeveless shirt and pants. 

“Can’t sleep?” 

“No.” Jas answered with a shake of her head, aimlessly swinging her blade around to feel its weight in her hands. There was silence between them as Sephiroth studied her behavior before he finally stepped forwards and spoke.

“Spar with me.” Bright blue eyes snapped to the feline-like eyes, wide in surprise. She had never spared against the General himself, only the virtual simulation of him. Gripping her sword, she nodded, watching with fascination as his famed Masamune appeared in his hand and both dropping into a fighting stance. In an instant, Sephiroth was in front of her, leaving her barely anytime to bring her blade up and bloke the strike that would have probably killed her had she not blocked or dodged it. Seeing her narrowed eyes when she moved back a bit after throwing his blade away from her’s the senior 1st smirked.

“I know you’re frustrated Jas, so let it out. Fight out your feelings until you feel drained.” Jas nodded slightly and took a moment to gather herself before delving into the bitter rage that had been building up inside her from day one at ShinRa, and with it, she attacked. After a few minutes of clashing blades, Sephiroth could see that she was acting purely on instinct and emotion, striking at him in unpredictable patterns and with as much strength as she could possible use whilst buried in her thoughts. He went with it, taking the defensive in order to avoid her blur of a sword, knowing that she could do some serious damage with the way things were escalating. 

Eventually he became aware that she was mumbling things under her breath that slowly grew in volume, he caught Genesis’ name multiple times as well as a few curses against the company and its president. It was when the sparks of electricity and fire began to jump off her blade that he knew she was going into the familiar state that most SOLDIERs activated their Limit Break, and he knew that her Thunder Strike was deadly, even more so when she was going all out, and she never went all out with a Limit Break. 

Taking as many precautions against her as he could before she did launch the attack at him, Sephiroth activated as many defensive materia he had on him, which wasn’t many, but it would have to do. Jas’s body moved faster than even his eyes could track and was on the opposite side of the room in less than a heartbeat; a massive gash decorated the wall in front of the panting girl, wire sparking behind the bent and twists metal. A moment later, the sound of crashing thunder was all around them, along with an obvious surge of air displacement that quickly fell back into place seconds later. 

Feeling a slight stinging on his cheek, the General raised a hand, pulling it back to see a bit of blood from the small cut there. Her blade must have just barely grazed him before she fully set off the attack, otherwise it would be a lot more severe and he would also be shocked by the electricity, if not dead already. 

The blonde was on her knees, panting for air as warm tears streaked down her cheeks, leaving salty tracks down her face. Jas’ hair had broken free of its tie and now cascaded down around her, covering her from the eyes of the silver haired man even as he moved closer, Masamune disappearing from his grip. He was at her side now, but her thoughts still came in torrents of images and snips of conversations. She wanted to understand, but it seemed like the answer was always just out of her grasp. She wanted to help, but she didn’t know how. 

Finally, exhaustion hit her like a tidal wave and her muscles screamed with the strain of the past two days. Releasing two Limit Breaks and fighting a small army really wasn’t on her list of things to do in a day, not to mention she didn’t have any time to rest after the mission in Banora. Normally a SOLDIER was able to go days without rest, but a single Limit Break was known to take a good chunk from their energy reserves, no matter how much mako they had running through their veins, and she had done two in the course of a mere few hours or so. A warm hand gently fell on her shoulder and she dropped her sword to hastily wipe away the tears, scolding herself for her show of weakness.

“Can you stand?” Sephiroth grasped her arm when she nodded and helped the girl to her feet, steadying her when she swayed and leaned most of her weight against him. He picked up her sword and supported her all the way to her room before leaving her to return to his own. The silver haired man lounged on his own silver couch, an open book in his hands that he paid no attention to, instead focusing on his own thoughts and feelings, taking a calmer approach than simply hashing it out in the training room. 

Surprisingly, the first thing he noted to himself was disappointment; he never had a student of his own, but even then he understood that Genesis was putting Jas through absolute hell by leaving her and keeping things like his degradation from her. In all honesty, he would have expected his red haired friend to have taken her with him when he deserted, not left her for dead in enemy territory. The 1st Class wasn’t all-knowing in the social aspects of life, but he knew attraction between two people, regardless of how subtle or suppressed, it was the little things he had picked up that transpired between the pair. Like how Jas managed to speak a few word and Genesis would go from absolutely livid about something to completely calm, or how Genesis would find the perfect way to mess with her then make it up to her with an extra mission that she would pick herself. He was a different person around her, Angeal saw it, Sephiroth saw it, and probably just about everyone but them did.


	18. Chapter 18

The next day, Jas woke to her phone rigging from its place on her side table. A typical ShinRa announcement for her’s and Zack’s promotion flashed on the screen before she deleted it and before tossing the device onto the sheets beside her. The clock on the side table red 11:53am and seeing this, she nearly launched herself from the bed at how late it was in the day already, but the second her feet touched the ground, a sore wave washed over her and she nearly tumbled to the floor when the pain swept the strength from her legs. Opting to sink to the ground than pull herself back up onto the bed, she yanked the soft blanket down with her and wrapped it around herself, catching the phone when it tumbled with it. 

She was uncharacteristically sore for a SOLDIER with mako enhancements; normally she’d be fully functioning after a decent rest, but for some reason, and she bet it was the Limit Breaks; she was going to take a while before she could move without pain since she couldn’t get up and get to her materia and her mako regeneration was slowed. Leaning back against the bedside, she sat with her thoughts until there was a knocking at the door. Jas yelled a ‘come in’ and a she heard the door open and two sets of footsteps headed to her room where Zack appeared with Sephiroth behind him. 

“Hey there! Why’re you on the floor?” Her black haired friend inquired curiously, flopping on her bed since she was on the far side of it, making it so that he was nearly right above her looking down.

“I tried to get up and ended up on the floor, it hurts to move and I can’t get to my materia.” She glared around him to the chest sitting on the floor on the opposite side of the room, close to where Sephiroth stood with a few bags in hand. With a chuckle, the silver haired SOLDIER put the bags on the bed and opened the chest, grabbing a Cure and casting it on her. The blonde sighed as the pain and soreness faded into nothing, but she still remained seated on the floor.

“Thanks, what brings you guys here?” Zack bounced off her bed excitedly, grabbing her hand to pull her off the bed and drag her into her living room while Sephiroth grabbed the bags and followed, setting them on the coffee table before distributing the contense, which happened to be takeout from a very popular Wutian restaurant. 

“You haven’t eaten anything in a while, so we brought lunch!” A small smile broke on the blonde’s lips as Sephiroth handed her a plate. The three sat around the coffee table eating and making small talk, avoiding the recent happening. Zack was the one to entice the other two into conversation though, talking about training simulations and trivial things, as well as his new girlfriend, to which Jas pointed out that she still wanted to meet. 

The two left a while later, Sephiroth informing the blonde that Hojo wanted to see her for some reason or another while at the same time warning her to avoid his possible intents to experiment on her. She took the cryptic warning to heart, giving the silver haired General a reassuring smile before he left to continue with his day. Jas dressed quickly, heading up to the labs at a leisurely pace. 

The earlier destruction of the massive lab space was covered in a think black tarp, but the scientist, as usual, didn’t seemed concerned with it in the slightest. Today though, he had multiple assistants running around with vials and Petri-dishes in hand. Mako blue eyes even caught sight of a few stray black feathers like the ones she had smartly opted to leave in her room. 

“Jasmine Strife, please come this way.” The head scientist himself addressed her directly, surprisingly, before leading the way back to a small secluded area with medical tables and an observation window on one side. 

“With the new discovery of degradation in former SOLDIER Genesis Rhapsodos, I’m going to make you a proposal.” Having peaked her interest but still remaining wary, Jas nodded for the man to continue. 

“The recovered feathers are not proving adequate for study; the cell concentration is not high enough and cannot survive without cells to bond to. However, the degradation spreads even faster in non-enhanced specimens die in mere hours, so we’ve constructed a mako based container of sorts to limit the degradation to a certain area.”

“You constructed a brand new piece of highly improbable technology in the span of a few hours?” 

“It’s part of the plot, don’t question me! Anyway, you are the most viable and probable specimen for the experiment; Lazard however, required your consent.”

“If I do consent, will you be able to cure the degradation?” He cast a withered look in her direction and she simply stared back.

“Why else you I drag a SOLDIER down here and propose to use you to study the degradation, if not to find a potential cure?” The blonde shrugged, making the scientist sigh before shoving a stack of papers into her hands. 

“Your signature is required by the end of the day in order to commence the experiment.” He jumped when she abruptly shoved the stack back, noticing a pen also missing from his breast pocket and all the lines were filled with her signature. 

“I’ll do it if you can save Genesis.” The man smirked widely before snatching the pen from her hand and tucking it back into his pocket.   
“Well then, SOLDIER Strife, please follow all directions from my assistant to prepare for the operation.”

Several hours later, Jas walked, more like stumbled, out of the labs with bandages wrapped around her shoulder and back, covered by her shirt. The pain killers and mako kicked in a few minutes later as the blonde headed out on a mission. 

For the next couple weeks, it was a mix of checking in with Hojo daily and then going out on missions the rest of the time, trying to steer clear of any sort of confrontation with Zack or Sephiroth or even Cloud. She didn’t see any of them until Tseng showed up at her apartment with a top class mission for her. He ran through the details and they set off, heading to the helicopter with two infantrymen accompanying them to pick up Zack then head out to Modeoheim. They flew in silence, Zack doing his best to keep up a conversation between the occupants of the transport. 

A distance outside their destination, gun fire sounded outside the chopper and just as Jas opened her mouth to ask the Turk for a status report, the whole thing lurched and began to spin before it collided with the ground.


	19. Chapter 19

Cold snow surrounded the blonde, but despite the sheerness of it, she pushed it away and lifted herself from its clutches to look over at the crashed helicopter. Zack was helping Tseng to his feet, seeing the other infantry were already on their feet. The blonde heaved herself to her feet, grimacing slightly before shaking it off and trudging through the snow with practiced ease. Growing up in Nibelheim had its perks, that and her enhancements made the cold easier to bare. 

“We should have been in Modeoheim if we hadn’t crashed, we need to make up lost time and get their as fast as possible. At least we have someone that’s used to this kind of terrain.” His eyes focused on Zack and Jas chuckled under her breath.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m a country boy. Well then let’s get going!” Excited as ever, Zack bounced in place before heading up the invisible train along the side of the mountain. Jas put a hand on her hip and followed at a slower pace, keeping with Tseng and the infantry that slowly fell behind.   
Zack looked over his shoulder at the three for a minute, walking backwards.

“Yo! Don’t fall too far behind! At least someone’s keeping up.” The 1st commented, glancing at the one walking next to him.

“Well, I’m a country boy too.” The infantryman commented softly. 

“From where?” The SOLDIER inquired curiously.

“Nibelheim.” He broke into laughter, drawing Jas’ ears to the conversation and slowly heading up to them as they stopped at the crest of the trail.  
“What about you?”

“Me? Gongaga!” His proud announcement make the infantryman laugh this time.

“What? You know Gongaga?”

“No, but it’s such a backwater name.”

“Ditto Nibelheim.”

“Like you’ve been there.”  
“No, but there’s a reactor out there, right? And a reactor usually means ‘nothing else out there.’” They both said the last part at the same time, breaking out into laughter before Zack turned back to Tseng.

“Hey Tseng! Me and uh…” He paused as his new friend removed his helmet, showing bright blonde spiky hair and blue eyes.

“Cloud.” 

“Me and Cloud here are both backwater experts! Oh yeah!!” He cheered and Tseng resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the SOLDIER’s usual antics. Jas though, chuckled and hooked an arm around her brother’s shoulders.

“I knew you two would make fast friends.” Zack turned back to them and did a double take.

“Hold on!! Please tell me this is a coincidence! Or are you really related?!”

“My idiot younger brother, Cloud. Ask Sephiroth if you don’t believe me, he’s met him.” Jas ruffled Cloud’s matching spikey hair, chuckling when he batted her hand away as Zack laughed.

“You look so much alike, you sure you aren’t twins?” 

“Gaia I hope not. It’s already bad enough she’s older than me, I don’t think I would survive us being the same age.” The pair laughed and Jas rolled her eyes, heading up to take point on the path. They cut down the few creatures that crossed their path until they reached on old ShinRa factory, guarded by multiple soldiers patrolling the grounds. 

The group perched at the top of a cliff, surveying the grounds below them.

“We’ll have to sneak in, but with this weather, we can’t afford to keep still for long.” Tseng’s eyes trailed over the compound in a calculating while Jas simply stood up, materia in hand.

“What’s your plan?” Zack asked, knowing that she wouldn’t move otherwise.

“We’ll take care of the soldiers with this; it’ll be a hundred times easier than taking them all on.” She held up the orb in her hands with a smirk, a Sleep materia, as Zack nodded and the two began to head down.

“I’ll signal with a fire materia when we’ve got them all locked in a heated building, there’s got to be at least one.” The Turk nodded, watching, fairly impressed with the blonde’s plan. It took maybe ten minutes for Jas to cast the spell on all the guards and Zack to drag them into and lock them inside the main tower before signaling the others and continuing. 

They ventured further into the warehouse, fending off soldiers until they reached an elevator leading to the one of the upper platforms overlooking a deep shaft in the earth. Tseng and the extra infantryman had headed off to find any sort of intel, leaving Jas, Zack, and Cloud to face whatever was at the top. Seeing Genesis confronting Hollander at sword point, the two SOLDIERs surged forward when the metal gates opened, Jas’ blade nocking Genesis’ away from the scientist, letting Zack stand between him and the blonde as Cloud stood in front of the entrance. 

“No one knows where the Jenova cells are being kept! Not even Hojo knows! You’ll never find them.” 

“Hojo is already working on a way to cure the degradation.” Jas snapped back at the man before locking her emotionless eyes back on Genesis. 

“That’s impossible! He doesn’t have any data related to Project G to test with! Let alone a living specimen that could possibly endure the degradation process.” Hollander snapped back, irritating the blonde.

“He collected enough from the feathers left behind to synthesize a viable amount to graph along with a mako net of sorts that keeps the degradation from spreading beyond certain points.” The scientist scoffed in disbelief before making a break for the elevator, knocking Cloud to the side when the younger blond tried to stop him.

“Zack! Get Hollander, I can handle things here. Cloud, back him up.” With a nod from the two, they shot off for the stairs, leaving the two alone as the pair’s footsteps echo faded into nothing. Jas took a moment to examine Genesis, noting the obvious white streaks in his once vibrant red hair and the cracked ghost of strike one the shoulder of his also greying crimson coat. Genesis also looked her over, unsettled by the blank, emotionlessness of her usually lively mako blue eyes, and there was a paler tone to her skin than usual. 

Without a thought, they clashed, blades sparking on contact as they moved in deadly dance. Jas hadn’t taken long to initiate her use of materia, throwing a thunder spell only to have it clash and cancel out with a ball of fire. They exchanged blows for the better part of five minutes before they locked blades and ended up throwing the blades out of each other’s hand and to the opposite sides of the space. Flipping and twirling to avoid spells cast by the other, they reached there blades, still firing at each other. Grasping the ivory hilt, Jas launched a large fireball then launched her blade after it, throwing it like a javelin. Just as she predicted, Genesis cut through the fire like it was nothing, but his eyes widened considerably as the projectile sword neared. At the last possible moment, his crimson sword knocked the blade over his head with a deaf clang sound as it imbedded itself in the floor a few feet behind him. 

Jas was breathing hard, heavier than she should have been from a battle like that, and was clutching her left shoulder tightly when Genesis looked back to her from the blade. The blonde’s breath hitched with a gasp and she hit the ground, biting back an agonizing scream as pain ripped through her, surging from her shoulder as she clawed at it desperately. Genesis was by her side in an instant, pulling her coat off followed by her shirt before pinning her arms down to her sides. The faint glow of mako illuminated in a ring an area of angry red skin right above her left shoulder blade. Jas bit her lip, drawing blood to keep her screams in, but even the faint ghost of a touch sent a new wave of pain through her and a scream tore from her throat. She tried desperately to throw the weigh off her, to tear at her skin and make the pain go away, but it was unyielding until she seized as it peaked, feeling like an Ilfrit had slashed her back open and promptly set it on fire. Black took her vision fast than any sleep materia could.

Genesis fell back in shock from a massive white and gold wing sprang into being before falling limply to the ground beside the now unconscious girl. The former 1st lifted Jas onto his lap carefully, minding the new appendage as realization struck him. A fond smile played on his lips as a tear fell down his face and onto hers.

“You’re so impulsive, why would you go so far for me when all I’ve ever done is hurt you?” He whispered, brushing her blonde hair from her face. He hesitated for a moment before pressing a light kiss to her lips, drawing away to hold her closer and simply waited for her to awaken.


	20. Chapter 20

It wasn’t long until Jas regained consciousness, eyes fluttering open, dazed and confused until she regained her bearing and looked up at Genesis as he released a relieved sigh upon her awakening. 

“Genesis.” She breathed his name, tentatively reaching up to brush her palm over his cheek, fingertips resting in his hair as she smiled.

“Your hair’s back to normal.” With a start, the former 1st looked up to see that the grey and white that had slowly overtaken part of his usually vibrant red locks was gone, snapping his glowing eyes to his shoulder, they widened when all he saw was familiar scorching crimson leather. Jas let out a light airy laugh before throwing her arms around the man’s neck, butterflies swimming in her stomach as his own circled her waist and pulled her flush against him. Genesis broke the embrace suddenly, pulling away only to move his hands to her face and draw her in, pressing his lips to hers in a gentle and passionate kiss, spilling his feelings out to her through the contact. Stunned, Jas took a moment to respond before eagerly returning his affections as his hands once more found her waist. 

Both were breathless when they separated again, Jas smiling brightly until she noticed the extra weight on her shoulder and looking behind her at the wing that was now partially folded against the back.

“I have a wing…” 

“Yes, it’s beautiful.” 

“Huh, Hojo said I wouldn’t form one since I’m just a regular SOLDIER.” Genesis hummed lightly and stood, pulling the girl to her feet as a dark look settled over him that Jas noticed instantly.

“What’s wrong?” She asked, picking up her shirt before carefully cutting an appropriate sized whole in it then pulled the article on. 

“Angeal, I think he’s planning something bad, we need to find him.” Throwing on her modified coat with a dramatic flair, Jas smirked and picked up her blade, slipping onto her back. 

“Then let’s go. Shouldn’t take too long now that I’ve got this.” She flexed the new appendage experimentally, gold feathers shimmering in the light as Genesis nodded and headed to the edge with the 1st behind him taking, a breath before leaping over the side. Jas copied him, keeping her wing close as she fell until she saw the bottom and snapped it out like second instinct, gliding close to the ground as the two burst from the tunnel in a show of feathers. 

“Angeal should be somewhere in the heart of Modeoheim.” The red head called out and Jas nodded distractedly, partially enveloped in the feel of the cold wind nipping at her face and her hair streaming in the air current behind her. Snapping from her state of fascination, Jas scanned the ground as they flew above the small buildings until she came across multiple footprints in the snow, leading to a rundown bathhouse. 

Circling above, Genesis was the first to notice the scene that made his blood run cold. Several monsters were mid pounce, all bearing down on the older SOLDIER. With a flash, Jas cast Stop on the beasts, halting them midair and giving Genesis enough time to crash through the window behind Angeal and cut them down with the blonde close behind. 

“Genesis!” Both black haired SOLDIERs exclaimed in sync. 

“What are you doing here?” Angeal questioned, Genesis simply gesturing to Jas in response. Now all eyes were on her, a gasp from Zack and a wide eyed look from Angeal made her draw her wing closer to her self-consciously. 

“Are you… were you…?” Unable to properly formulate his question, Angeal trailed off uncertainly as Jas shook her head.

“I was never involved with any experiment before now. Hojo used me to study degradation by implanting some of Genesis’ cells into my shoulder, putting a limiter around it so that it wouldn’t spread. The wing, however, was not supposed to happen, so I have no idea why it popped up, though I wish it didn’t because I don’t think I’ve ever felt more pain in my whole life.” Genesis chuckled at the blonde’s overdramatic display of feigned agony which brought their attention back to the red head.

“What happened to the degradation?” Zack questioned curiously, putting his sword back into place before setting his hands on his hips.  
“ _My friend, your desire,  
Is the bringer of life, the gift of the goddess_.” Zack dropped his head back with a deep sigh of frustration as Angeal moved the Buster Sword to its harness, smirking lightly.

“LOVELESS, Act III, but that doesn’t answer the question.” Genesis rolled his eyes at the firm look Angeal was giving him.

“That’s exactly it; I don’t know what happened to cure me of my degradation. My best guess is that Jas had a hand in it, I am unsure of anything else.” Footsteps cut off any further conversation as Tseng and Cloud entered the room, eyes wide at the scene before them. Cloud’s blue eyes found Jas and he tilted his head in confusion while the blonde smiled sheepishly. 

“This is going to be pretty hard to explain at headquarters.” The Turk sighed, straightening his suit as his dark eyes swept over everyone present. 

“I’m sure it won’t be too hard to come up with a nice cover story for this.” Zack grinned as Angeal shot him a look of disapproval before sighing and grasping the Buster Sword. Tseng’s eyes narrowed, wary of a possible attack, but the former 1st simply held the large blade out to his student, who stared with wide eyes and didn’t move an inch.

“Take it. If ShinRa thinks that Genesis and I are dead, it’ll make it easier to move around and hide away until this all dies down.” With a nod, Zack accepted the sword, replacing the smaller blade with it before looking over at Cloud, who was standing beside his sister simply watching.

“Hey Spikey! Catch!” He tossed it into the air and Cloud, not expecting it, fumbled the blade clumsily before it fell with a few clangs to the floor. He picked it up carefully; face a little red from the sudden attention that was focused on him suddenly. 

“Well we’ll have to fix up your reaction time a bit, won’t we?” Zack chuckled, the younger blond simply giving him a confused glance, to which he received a grin in return.

“You want to be in SOLDIER don’t you? You’ll have to do a bit of training first.” Cloud grinned back with a nod as everyone present watched the scene, pushing the matter at hand to the side, if only for a few minutes.


	21. Chapter 21

With a few favors promised to the Turk and a light bribe from the blonde SOLDIER, Zack, Cloud, Tseng, and Jas returned to Midgar with a report for the capture of Hollander and the deaths of Genesis and Angeal. Lazard himself looked almost as crestfallen as the 1st Class’ appeared, though Zack nearly blew it for the both of them when he nearly burst into a hysterical fit of laughter. 

After the brief, the two separated, Zack moving to go rest and Jas heading up the labs to check in with Hojo like he had ordered her to. The elevator was empty so late in the evening, but the labs themselves were bustling with people and Hojo was nowhere to be seen, most likely holed up in his office looking over the data samples he had collected.

Sure enough, the scientist sat at his desk, his expression looking more irritated or frustrated than usual. Knocking on the door to alert him to her presence, he jerked up and glared at her, as if she was the cause for all his troubles. 

“Strife, sit.” His clipped tone suggested that he really wasn’t in a mood to be crossed, so the blonde sat without a word on the examination table, the scientist moving after her after grabbing a couple vials from the cooler that sat in one corner. 

“Do you know what this is?” He held out the vials, a liquid of a near clear blue with gold strands that floated throughout it filled the glass containers. When he received a shake of the head, Hojo continued speaking.

“This is what I’ve managed to extracted from the samples I’ve collected from you so far. This gold substance has never been seen before in scientific history.” Well this was news to her. 

“What?” 

“You carry the DNA of both your parents; however, this particular gold substance was tightly corded within it, your cells have traces of this as it is hypothesized that it is spread through your entire body and so far, has remained completely unreactive to any sort of stimuli we impose on it.” 

“Are you saying I’m an experiment?” 

“No, you are completely natural, I would have been able to tell if you had been tampered with; you were conceived and born and grew up just like any normal child, and this substance seems to be natural to you as well, which begs the question: What is it and why is it a part of you?” Hojo returned the vials to their place in the cooler before retrieving another needle from a drawer at his desk, gesturing for the blonde’s arm, which she held out willingly. He took the blood sample quickly before sending her away from the labs. 

Surprisingly, Jas ran into Sephiroth of all people as she made her exit, just as he was entering.

“Jas, what are you doing here?” 

“Oh, I got a little bruised during the mission and Hojo insisted that I be examined.” He eyed her for a minute before humming in reply and moving past her to continue on his path, leaving Jas to go her own way back down to her room/apartment. 

The blonde wished she could tell the silver haired SOLDIER everything that had transpired during the mission in Modeoheim, tell him this his two closest friends were really alive and well, but Genesis himself, with Angeal in agreement, that the 1st shouldn’t know anything yet. She spent the rest of the day sleeping in preparation for the missions she would undoubtedly receive the next morning.

***   
“Vacation?!” Zack and Jas echoed after each other. It had been several days since they returned from Modeoheim, and now it seemed Lazard thought it best to allow them some vacation time out in Costa del Sol. Not that the famous sunny beaches and crystal ocean waves didn’t sound pleasant, the timing just didn’t sit right with the blonde. 

Not two hours later, Jas was sitting in plain jean shorts and a tank top reading at a table across from Tseng. The Turk’s vacation had ‘conveniently overlapped’, which neither SOLDIER bought for a minute. Flipping the page and trying to focus on the fine print, Jas finally gave up and, with a sigh, put the book down and leaned down into the chair.

“You seem tense, what’s on your mind?” The Wutian man spoke up for the first time since they arrive and the blonde could only shrug.

“Something’s going on, you know what it is, don’t you?” She eyes the passive Turk for a moment, shaking her head in dismissal when he kept silent.

“Never mind, I’m just bring a bit paranoid. I never did well with vacations.” There was silence between them as she looked out over the blue ocean, glad that she was sitting in a shaded area instead of out under the scotching sun. 

“You’ve got good instincts.” Tseng commented, bringing Jas back into a conversation.

“There is something going on, but there are already Turks doing investigations as we speak, so please just try to enjoy this time off.” He finished, turning the page of his own novel as Jas frowned, displeased, but not willing to argue with someone that was probably hiding a gun on his person even on ‘vacation’. With another light sigh, the female stood up, moving away from the table and moving over to where Zack was hanging around Reno and Rude as well as an unfamiliar female Turk. 

“Hey Zack, seen a bucket around by any chance?” Said person gave her a strange and confused look, but shook his head slowly.

“No… Why?” She gave with a straight look.

“No reason.” 

“I saw one out by the greenhouse.” The other female spoke up, pointing to a smaller building just down the way from where they were.

“Really? Thanks…ah?”

“Cissnei.”

“Right, thanks again.” They shared a not and Jas set off down the path, the three men watching her curiously, but didn’t speak up about her intentions. Not even when she returned, back full of water and stopped in front of them again. 

“I need one of you to go take Tseng’s book.” That got her wide eyed looks from all around when she spoke softly enough that the man involved couldn’t hear here from where he sat across the actually rather wide courtyard. Shaking his head with a grin, Zack jumped forward, setting off towards the Turk as the others watched him converse with him before he came sprinting back towards them, book in hand. Having been to occupied watching Zack’s supposed suicide attempt, they hadn’t seen Jas move forward just enough that before the Wutian man could take more than three steps after the back haired puppy, he was completely drenched in water from head to toe. 

The metal bucket hit the ground with a loud clang and Jas was sprinting off in the direction of the beach, Tseng in pursuit as the rest of the Turks attempted to smother their laughter after their superior get one-upped by two SOLDIERs.


	22. Chapter 22

Two weeks passed with nothing major besides a mini war waged between Jas and Tseng, the two going back and forth with pranks, ending when Jas replaced all of Tseng’s suits with dresses and Tseng putting scarlet red dye in her shampoo. They called a truce after that, Jas returning the Turk’s clothes and Tseng giving her the conditioner that would wash out the dye. But even that wasn’t much to sate the lifestyle of a SOLDIER; someone that was used to constant action and danger wasn’t cut out for hanging around a beach for weeks. 

Zack turned to his ever present habit of squatting while Jas sat practicing her materia accuracy and control. At the moment she was sitting in the shade, two materia at her side as she focused on channeling the spells to her hands, eventually she had a ball of fire in one palm and a sparking ball of electricity in the other. Drawing back the magic into herself, the spells died, the gentle warmth of the fire and the pinpricks of lightning faded into nothing as she opened her eyes, finding Cissnei talking to Zack.

“That’s it! I’m calling him!” The teen exclaimed in frustration, reaching for the PHS that sat on the chair next to him, but stopped when the Turk spoke up again.

“Director Lazard isn’t in; he’s been missing for a few weeks now. He was the one funding Hollander’s research with the company’s money. We’re interrogating him now, so we should know more soon.” Jas closed her eyes again; she finally knew what it was that Tseng had been keeping to himself. It didn’t make much sense to her, but she wasn’t going to question it. Burrowing her feet into the soft, hot sand, Jas sighed and fell back just as hurried footsteps fell down the stairs.

“Heads up! Genesis Copies!” Tseng yelled and Jas sat up, eyes immediately finding the marron clad soldiers emerging from the water. Growling to herself at Genesis’ refusal to lie low, she clutched the fire materia in a vice grip and threw out the strongest blaze of fire she could manage when the soldiers were all clustered on the beach. The white wall of fire appeared so suddenly that Zack had to jump back to avoid being caught in the inferno, though no one was lucky enough to escape the wave of heat that came with it. 

When it finally died down, the sand was smoldering and black spots of ash cluttered the area, slowly being consumed by the rising tide. Unconcerned by the mixed stared directed at her; she tossed the materia over her shoulder and fell back into the sand. Of course the eccentric man couldn’t stay put for more than a few weeks at a time, and as much as she missed the red head, she was totally going to hit him. 

Zack ran a hand through his brushed back spiky hair, looking at the blonde with a mix of awe, fear, and concern. Normally he was the one snapping into combat mode first and Jas was usually the ‘plan then attack’ person; the only time she struck out with a high level attack without taking a second was when she was completely pissed off. He could guess that it was the crimson 1st Class she was planning the murder of as she relaxed back into the sand. Though Zack was not fully aware of how intimate the relationship between them had become, he had his guesses for the reason the two were so close now. 

Tseng straightened his jacket for the hundredth time that day and moved towards the two SOLDIERs.

“Get ready, both of you, Junon is under attack and you’re coming with me to investigate.” He headed away from them with Cissnei following, leaving Jas and Zack to catch up. The blonde stood up with a sigh, fetching the materia orbs from where they sat in the sand, but Zack stopped her with a firm hand on her arm. 

“C’mon Jas, what’s going on? I get that Genesis not doing what we agreed is a little irritating, but not really something you’d incinerate the enemy for. So, what’s going on?” 

“It’s nothing, Zack, I’m just tired. Genesis keeps putting himself in danger, Sephiroth doesn’t even know what the people he cares about are alive and not actually dead, though I’m sure he knows by now that Genesis is, but still. It’s just hard and I want to kick someone’s ass for it, but I can’t. So, can we let this go for now, please? We can talk when we’ve finished in Junon.” With a reluctant nod, the SOLDIER released his friend and they headed back to the hotel where they dressed in their respective uniforms, heading straight for the city under siege using a Turk helicopter. 

Smoke rose from the city as they stepped through the massive gates, people rushed from the city with crimson clad troops firing at them. Gritting her teeth, Jas drew her blade and rushed forward with Zack close behind, cutting the copies down, Tseng and Cissnei a few steps behind.

“Hollander is being kept here in Junon, his presence and this attack must be related somehow. We’ll begin evacuating the citizens; Zack, find Hollander and keep him safe.” 

“What? Why am I babysitting him, wouldn’t I be better here on the battle field?”

“Hollander has access to top secret information, the president is insisting on his safety being top priority, especially with Director Lazard’s disappearance breaking the chain of command. This attack is to exploit that, so you need to protect Hollander. Besides, Jas will be here helping us.” 

“He’s being held in the detention center on the upper 8th level. You can take the emergency elevator at the end of the road up.” 

“He’s still being interrogates, he can’t fall into enemy hands now.” Tseng chimed in again

“Understood.” Zack gave a two fingered salute to the Turk as Jas turned to him with a smirk.

“Good luck.” 

“You too!” He called as he jogged away towards the gate, leaving the Turks and female SOLDIER.

“Jas, start clearing the citizens out of the buildings and get them to the evac. zones, keep an eye out for Genesis copies.” 

“Yes Sir!” She nodded and headed off to the nearest house, placing her sword on her back as she headed off to complete her orders, almost hoping that she would cross Genesis himself so that she could get in a good sucker punch.


	23. Chapter 23

Striding past the last of the houses, Jas turned the corner and found herself face-to-face with several Genesis Copies, but none of them pulled their weapons on her or made any move to attack. Grasping the hilt of her sword, the blonde moved past the group only to stop when a black feather drifted past her followed by the soft sound of boots touching down on the ground. 

“They won’t attack you if you’re alone.” Turning, she found Genesis closer than she had anticipated and blushed when he laid a small kiss on her lips, drawing back with a smirk at her flustered look.

“Genesis! Don’t do that!” She whacked his chest lightly, getting a chuckle in response before the red clad man wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer, nuzzling her blonde spikes. 

“I missed you.”

“I’ve only been gone a few weeks.”

“Still too long.” Jas giggled lightly and returned the embrace for a second before pulling away, brushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear. 

“You would have been fine either way. What are you doing attacking Junon anyhow? Your degradation is gone now.” 

“Hollander is here and Lazard knows that I’m alive.”

“Lazard?!” Mako bright eyes widened in shock, the Director was one of the few she would have suspected of aiding Genesis, but it would make since if he had been the one funding the scientist in the first place. The former 1st Class nodded in confirmation before continuing.

“Yes, he told me where Hollander was being kept for interrogation, so I used these copied to attack. I didn’t want to seem suspicious, so I went through with it, though they are under orders not allow fatalities.” He gestured to the crimson clad soldiers as the blonde nodded with a small smile on her lips.

“Alright then; I should get going, Tseng isn’t the only Turk on duty at the moment, I shouldn’t disappear too long.” With a displeased grunt, Genesis pressed a chaste kiss to her lips before spreading his ebony wing and taking to the sky, his form vanishing among the smoke and clouds in a mere few seconds. Standing with eyes to the sky for a few seconds, Jas let herself wonder about what he would do with the scientist if he did manage to get him. Hearing footsteps headed her way, the SOLDIER turned, finding no trace of the crimson soldiers, and moved away. The Wutian Turk saw her approached and waved to her in a gesture that screamed ‘hurry up’, so she picked up the pace, settling with a brisk jog that got her to him in a few seconds.

“Zack’s on the upper level, Hollander’s been throwing everything Genesis has at him, we need to hurry.” With a nod, she picked up the pace again, keeping it a little slower so that Tsend could keep up with her. 

The setting sun glared into her eyes are they made it to the airfield where Zack stood in the distance, and Jas took the initiative to break her pace and move forward, slowing down to stop at her friends side, but he did nothing but let out a frustrated sigh. 

“Mission failed, this goes on your permanent record.” The two turned to find Sephiroth just a few feet behind them, Jas questioning why she hadn’t heard or even seen him when she ran across the airstrip.

“Sephiroth! Long time no see.” The blonde couldn’t tell if the greeting was meant to sound so hostile, but she brushed it off and gave her silver haired friend a light smile, which he half returned.

“Let the Turks handle the rest. I was on my way to Modeoheim when I heard you were in the area. The situation has not resolved; Genesis Copies have been sighted around the world.” Jas glanced out over the fiery waves, the water scorched by the setting sun as she mentally cursed herself for not hitting Genesis while she had the chance, it seemed he had been more active than she previously guessed. 

“That can’t be; we wiped out those Genesis Copies!” He retaliated, glancing at the blonde woman out of the corner of his eye when he noticed her lack of input or even reaction; at least that’s what it would look like to Sephiroth since Zack knew the Crimson Commander was alive and well. He made a mental note on his female friend’s impressive acting skills.

“Did Genesis really die?” For just a second, Jas let her muscles tense, thinking that there was a possibility that he knew they hadn’t really killed him, but she chided herself for thinking the impossible. A light breeze caught her hair, blowing it back was her face and catching the edges of her ivory coat with it. 

“They’ve been sighted around Midgar. In the slums too.” The blonde could vaguely recall that Zack’s girlfriend lived in the Sector 5 slums, and his reaction and concern must have showed.

“Permission to return, granted. Take care.” The silver haired SOLDIER turned his own aqua colored eyes to the sea as Zack turned to leave, but stopped when Jas spoke up.

“What’s happening in Modeoheim?” 

“The device Hollander has been using was stolen.”

“Genesis?” Zack questioned, Sephiroth’s attention shifting to him once more.

“Probably.” When silence greeting his words, the general turned to see Zack opening and closing his mouth, as if he wanted to speak but couldn’t find the words. With an amused smile, Sephiroth chuckled.

“We’ll meet again soon.” 

“I’ll hold you to that. Keep an eye on Jas for me will ya?” Rolling her eyes, the blonde shot a half glare over her shoulder at the retreating figure of her friend.

“I’m perfectly capable of looking after myself, thank you very much. I didn’t take the easy way into SOLDIER. Not that is an easy way into SOLDIER for anyone, female or otherwise.” Zack didn’t respond, simply kept his pace as he headed away, leaving Jas and Sephiroth alone with the whirl of incoming helicopters and other emergency transport vehicles. The pair stood in silence, looking over the waves as the sun slowly disappeared beneath the horizon. 

“You’ve been recalled to Midgar as well, Jas. The newest batch of recruits needs a permanent instructor, and Zack has several missions lined up for the next few weeks at least.” Mako bright eyes never leaving the sight before her, Jas nodded.

“Understood. Good luck with your mission in Modeoheim.” With another nod, the woman was turning and heading to a waiting chopper.


	24. Chapter 24

The pristine and shiny metal desk, complete with top line computer and other tech made Jas grimace in dread. There was already a small stack of papers and folders ready for her to sit and sift through, which she was not looking forward to at all. 

With a resigned sigh, the blonde plopped down into the chair and pulled the folders closer, looking through the list of new recruits. It was a lot longer than she previously thought, and with a low groan, she let her head fall to the table with a heavy ‘thump’. 

Managing to pick herself pack up again after a few seconds, she finished looking through them all and looked up at the clock; ten minutes until her first training session with them. Well, there was absolutely nothing wrong with showing up early and setting a good example. Throwing her blade, newly named Heaven’s Wing, into its harness, Jas exited her equally new office and headed down to the training room. 

There were two 3rd Class SOLDIERs in the room when she entered and they watched with a hint of awe as she striped off her coat, showing off her muscle toned arms, though her hands were still clad in white leather that creaked as she grasped the handle of her blade and gave it a few light swings. 

Taking a moment to pull her messy blonde spikes into a loose ponytail that rested on the nape of her neck, Jas smirked widely as the final members of the group filed in. 

“Nice of you to join us! I’m sure Zack gave you all his ‘dreams and honor’ speech, already, so I’ll keep this short! I’m not going to go easy on any one of you. If you fall behind you better catch up fast or I’ll kick you out of SOLDIER myself. This will by no means be easy for you, it wasn’t for me, it wasn’t for Zack, it wasn’t even easy for Sephiroth himself; you are going to be bruised and hurt when everything is said and done, but at the same time, I’m going to turn you into real SOLDIERs. You want to reach your dreams? You aren’t going to get anywhere without putting your heart into it. I hope you’re committed, otherwise you better be walking out that door; I won’t accept anything less than your all. Do I make myself clear!?”   
“Sir, Yes Sir!” Came the unanimous reply from all present. 

“Good! Let’s get started!” 

***

Pained groans came from just about each and every one of the 3rd Class’ when the blonde 1st called the session to an end, not even a hint of sweat dotted her brow from the sparing and strenuous exercises she had started them on. There were a few curses muttered under breaths that were obviously unaware that her enhanced senses easily picked up the words like they were spoken aloud; which led to her also hearing a very insulting remark made about her own entrance into SOLDIER, which also insulted Genesis at the same time. 

Heaven’s Wing was lodged into the wall, level with the 3rd Class’ throat. Her eyes were dangerously narrowed into a glare that could freeze even Sephiroth with fear and everything stood still. No one dared to breathe, feeling the nearly tangible wave of rage and murderous intent flowing from the blonde. 

The silence was suddenly broken by the sound of violins as Jas’ phone rang. Keeping her glare fixed, she fished the device from her pocket and flipped it open.

“Jas….Hey Zack….Nothing that can’t wait, why?......Sure, I’ll meet you there…..Of course I know how to get there, I’m not stupid…..Yeah yeah, see ya later. ” She closed the PHS and her eyes with it, heaving a large sigh before locking the man back into her now emotionless gave.

“I don’t ever want to hear another word against Genesis Rhapsodos or Angeal Hewley. If I do, I’ll make sure you get shipped how in a body bag with a personally signed letter explaining exactly why. Understood?” 

“Y-yes Sir, please excuse me!”

“Dismissed.” She hissed out and the entire room cleared out in seconds. 

“Who pissed you off?” A voice called from the doorway, gaining the blonde’s attention.

“Oh, hey Kunsel. Just some dumb new 3rd; what are you doing down here?” The familiar 2nd shrugged and leaned against the doorway.  
“There’s a group of 2nds on their way down to do a training session; they sent me down to see if it was occupied.” 

“I see, I’ll get out of your way then.” Striding forward, Jas yanked Heaven’s Wing from the wall with what seemed like the barest of efforts before tossing her coat over an arm and walked from the room, saying her goodbyes to Kunsel as she left. The halls were empty when she reached her apartment, which wasn’t all that surprising when Sephiroth was in Modeoheim, Zack was below plate, and Genesis and Angeal were hiding out somewhere or other. 

Opting to forgo the heavy white leather, Jas left the coat on the bed before taking a brush to her untamable locks, giving up after about ten minutes. Deeming herself presentable, the blonde glanced around the room for a minute, feeling like something was off, finally her eyes caught the bright gold fabric of her 3/4 skirt and she pulled it on. 

Content, she headed out, striding with unshakable confidence through the streets, getting looks from people as she headed to the Sector 1 train station. The slums were just as she remembered, bleak grey of the upper plate stained the view while people loitered around, most dirty and a little un-kept, but still presentable. Wall Market was still the center of activity, as little as that activity was, and Jas took a second to look through some of the things there were selling, eventually finding a pleasant little scarf, light in color with blue edging and pink flowers along the ends. 

Paying for it, the blonde continued on her way, stopping outside the doors that led to Sector 5 like Zack had asked her to. She wasn’t waiting long before his loud and energetic voice called out to her, catching her attention instantly. 

“You made it!” He smile brightly, unfazed by the annoyed glare shot his way, though it faded into curious excitement. 

“Of course I did. Let’s go, I want to finally meet this girl.” With a chuckle, Zack nodded and led them deeper into the slums, up to a rather well looking church despite its obvious age and state of disrepair. Pushing open the large wood doors, the pair stepped inside. The pews were just as aged as the rest, but the patch of lively flowers took all the attention. Kneeling by them was a girl, blown hair tied back with a pink ribbon, a white and blue dress hugged her figure as she stood, eyes a bright green and a smile as warm as the spring sun. 

“Hello! You must be Jasmine, I’ve heard so much about you! I’m Aerith.”

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Aerith, and please, call me Jas. Here, for you.” She held out the scarf with a smile while Zack hung back to watch them interact, happy to find that they were getting along so well, even as Aerith tried to deny the gift before Jas all but forced the girl to accept it, wrapping it carefully around her with a light laugh shared between them.


	25. Chapter 25

*Aerith’s P.O.V. **A little while before meeting Jas* 

Zack’s been a lot more… well, bouncy, than usual. Ever since he came back from talking to the friend he wanted me to meet. It’s not so much a bad thing, but he’s starting to look a little bit nervous too. 

“What’s got you so worried, Zack?” He jerked up, you could almost see the puppy ears perking up from his head in attention and the thought made me giggle as I sat down next to him by the flowers.

“Well, I just really hope you and Jas get along, I mean, you’re important to me, and she’s important to me; not in the same as you of course, but you know, she’s a good friend and if you guys don’t get along, I’m not sure how I could deal with something like that, you know?” He turned wide blue eyes to me, a hint of desperation mixed in with the usual glow and I smiled at him.

“I’m sure we’ll get along just fine, from everything you’re told me, she sounds amazing.” He relaxed a little bit, a grateful smile on his own lips before he bent and kissed me cheek. 

“Thanks Aerith, I’m gonna go get her, I’ll be back soon.”

“Alright, I’ll be here.” I watched as he left the church, disappearing as the wood shut behind him. I turned back to the flowers, reaching to pull up a small weed that had pocking its way through the dirt. The whispers of the Planet grew a little louder with the silence that consumed the room. Something was making Her excited, I couldn’t help but wonder what it could be that would cause such a reaction. The whispers grew louder and even more excited, but I couldn’t clearly hear anything no matter how hard I listened. A few minutes later, the doors opened, breaking my focus as I stood. The sight of the woman alone that gracefully moved through the doors nearly took my breath away. She was the very representation of grace and beauty, even with the scars she bore on her face and bare arms. Her bright blonde hair was a shimmery gold in the light and her eyes were a crystal clear glowing blue color. The white and gold she wore made her look even more ethereal, and the way she carried herself and the sword on her back screamed prowess. Suddenly, a few of the whispers became clear, though I could only pick out the words ‘guardian’, ‘daughter’ and ‘goddess’. 

As quickly as they had come, the voices of the Planet were silent, but I could understand their meaning clearly enough as I stood to greet her.

“Hello! You must be Jasmine, I’ve heard so much about you! I’m Aerith.” She smiled brightly.

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Aerith, and please, call me Jas. Here, for you.” She held out a bundle of white, but I immediately shook my head.  
“Oh, no, please, I couldn’t possible accept something like this.”

“I insist, please.” She wrapped the cloth, a white scarf, around my neck and I couldn’t help but laugh a little. She laughed as well before both of us lurked a little, Zack having come up to through his arms around our necks, forcing Jas to have to bend down a little. 

“Well aren’t you two just the perfect friends after all.” He masked his relief with a chuckle, I couldn’t help but joining him as Jas simply rolled her eyes in feigned annoyance, a smile lingering on her lips.

After a few more jokes and a light tussle between the SOLDIERs, which ended in Jas flipping Zack over her shoulder, the blonde woman joined me beside the flowers, lightly tracing over the petals with her fingers. 

“So how did you and Zack meet?” I finally asked after a moment of comfortable silence and Jas glanced at me for a second, an amused gleam in her eyes.

“Well, for me it was my first day as a 2nd Class, back then I still wore the regulation uniform. I was heading to the training room when I heard someone yell ‘chocobo’ at the top of their lungs before I got tackled to the floor. As you probably guess, Zack was the one that tackled me, but I kicked him off and he hit the wall really hard. Thankfully he was just as indestructible then as he is now, so he was perfectly fine, unconscious, but fine. Anyway, I ended up dragging him down to the infirmary and staying there, cause I was a little afraid that I’d hurt him, and that wouldn’t bode to well with the higher-ups; he woke up about an hour later, mumbling about getting kicked by an angry chocobo.” She paused for a second, chuckling into her hand before gathering herself to continue.

“He looked a little surprised to see me sitting there, in fact he practically jumped away, nearly fell off the medical bed. It took a while for me to get him to stop calling me a chocobo after that though, and I guess we just happened to become friends along the way.” I couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculous story, even though I could perfectly imagine him doing something like that. I looked down at the flowers, noticing how they seemed to shift towards her touch very so slightly. 

“In my defense, you looked like one from behind with all that spikey blonde hair.” We both laughed at his attempt at defending himself, which only caused a greater spectacle as he began to rant about just about everything until Jas and I were gasping for breath from laughing so much.   
Jas glanced up through the hole in the roof where the dwindling light from only the few lights of the plate shined down. 

“I should be getting back, I have a little bit of paperwork to go through before I can call it a day, plus I need to be up early.” She stood, offering me a hand as Zack complained about her turning into the next 1st Class workaholic. 

“It was an absolute pleasure to meet you, Aerith. I hope we get the chance to talk again.” I took her hand and she pulled me up, smiling.

“I hope so as well, feel free to come by whenever, the flowers really like you.” We chuckled as Zack said his goodbyes to his friend before she made her exit, disappearing behind the entrance doors. Zack’s arm was around my waist the second she was gone.

“That went well.”

“See, I told you we’d get along.” I smiled up at him while he simply shrugged.

“Hey, what did you mean about the flowers liking her?” 

“Just that: the flowers like her.”


	26. Chapter 26

*3rd Person P.O.V.* 

Morning came sooner that Jas would have liked, and with the lingering demands by Hojo for her to get checked up at the lab hanging over her head, it wasn’t a very pleasant morning. Hojo had all but threw a fit when he saw that the degradation on her shoulder was completely gone and that he had yet to identify the gold substance that lingered in her body also seemed to cause him massive amounts of distress. Not that the blonde 1st really cared at 5 o’clock in the morning, though she was glad when he finally demanded that she get out of his lab. 

Disappearing into her office, she nearly collapsed at the sight of another, larger, stack of papers and folders sitting there. Noon was the time blaring at her from the clock when she finally finished the last paper, so with a light skip in her step, she grabbed her sword and headed to find some food, opting to find a restaurant to eat at than the lousy cafeteria food that ShinRa provided. 

She returned and immediately headed to the training room for the second lesson of the day. A few of the 3rd looked less than pleased as they streamed into the room, but Jas didn’t even bother as she started them on basic exercises and spars. 

“SOLDIER Strife!” A voice called from the entrance and the woman turned on her heels, snapping off a salute since the only people that addressed her directly as ‘SOLDIER Strife’ were the higher-ups. She was slightly surprised to see Heidegger and Scarlet of all people. She had never actually met the two in person, but she knew they were important and the green suited man was the temporary Director of SOLDIER. 

“Yes, Sir?” 

“How are our newest 3rds preforming?”

“Up to standard, they only started yesterday after all, but I’ll be sure they make topnotch SOLDEIRs in no time.” 

“Of course.” The man cleared his throat awkwardly at the finality tone she had used against him oh so subtly. The woman beside him rolled her eyes before turning on her heels and leaving the training room with Heidegger following close behind. The SOLDIERs had always unnerved the man, knowing that the power they had was more than any normal military personal ought to have. Scarlet didn’t care much for the glowing eyed super soldiers, preferring her machines to people in general. 

Returning to the training room, mako bright eyes noticed a definite lack of motivation in several of the men, four of them being a group that was taking to talking while doing their laps at a less than satisfactory pace.

“Pick up the pace before I start throwing fire balls at you lot!” They exchanged glances and a few shrugs before picking it up the slightest bit, but they fell back again minutes later. With a growl of irritation thrumming low in her throat, Jas powered up a lower level Fire and let it fly. One member of the group noticed the ball and tackled the others down so that it flew just over their heads and scorched the wall. A large grin split her lips as they looked up, obviously shocked that she had gone through with her threat. Without a word, she sent another straight for them, breaking them from their stupor and into a dead sprint around the running track. 

Finally satisfied that her display had given them the intended motivation to get them up to speed, the blonde spent the rest of the training session barking orders and overseeing spars. The same trend went on for three weeks, alternating between training 3rds and filling out paper work. On the weekend she visited Aerith, who always welcomed her presence with a large smile. Sephiroth had returned from his string of missions with nothing new to report and Zack was his usual energetic self that insisted on bothering her for at least an hour while she was doing her work. 

There had been no news on Lazard’s disappearance, though Jas suspected that Genesis knew something, not that she had the means to contact him. She did learn that her love had begun attacking the mako reactors around the world, and the way he was doing it was leaving an obvious trail.   
With a head ache growing from lack of proper sleep for a prolonged time, Jas all cut collapsed onto the couch in the lobby, not even bothering to move to her apartment or even her office, knowing that no one would disturb her in the slightest, unless Zack happened to stumble upon her, but she was too tired to really care. 

Half an hour later Zack walked into the lounge, catching sight of two familiar spikey haired blonds, one standing while the older of the two was sprawled on her front on a couch. 

“Hey, Cloud! Together again, eh?” He exclaimed enthusiastically as the younger boy chuckled.

“Yeah, looks like it.”

“You see Jas around lately?” Cloud shook his head lightly.

“No, but I’d imagine she’s been pretty busy with her new position and everything, plus I’ve had missions of my own to do. Why?” 

“You wanna see what happens when you try to take a sleep deprived 1st Class SOLDIER’s sword while they’re asleep?” He asked, ignoring the younger blonde’s question and getting a wary look in return.

“Umm…Sure?” With a gleam in his blue eyes, Zack tugged Cloud over to the couch where Jas was still laying unaware. Grasping Heaven’s Wing lightly, the older man lifted it slowly, and Jas, having felt the pull of her harness, lashed out with a firm and solid hit to the stomach followed by a boot to the face that sent him into the wall. 

Cloud yelped at the sudden attack as Zack groaned from his stop on the floor, a good sized dent in the metal wall where he had collided with it. Jas blinked slowly a few times before falling back onto the couch again, out like a light. Unsure of what exactly he should do, the young Strife glanced back and forth between his sister’s still form and Zack as he pulled himself back onto his feet.

“Well her reflexes aren’t going flat anytime soon.” He wheezed slightly, arm around his stomach.

“You really shouldn’t have done that, Zack.” grimacing, the 1st shrugged.

“Oh well. Hey, can you round up the others we’re taking on this mission? I’d do it, but I kinda need a sec.” He flopped into the nearest chair and coughed lightly.

“Yeah, sure. I’ll be right back.” Cloud nodded and took off, an amused look gleaming in his natural blue eyes. By the time he returned with the other two troops, Zack was back on his feet like he hadn’t been kicked into the wall, save for the slightly discolored bruise blossoming on his lower jaw. The line of three suddenly straightened as Sephiroth entered. His glanced lingered for a second on the bruise and he found his curiosity perked considerably since he had seen him not ten minutes earlier.

“What happened?” 

“Oh, well, ah… You see…” He trailed off, uncertain, and shot a look at Cloud in a silent plead for help.

“He attempted to wake Commander Strife, Sir.” Calling his sister by her formal tittle felt odd on his tongue as Cloud gestured to her for the General. With and understanding nod, the silver haired man turned mako green eyes to Cloud.

“Good to see you again, Cloud.” 

“And you, Sir.” The blonde nodded, a light heat building in his cheeks from the sudden and unexpected attention, luckily Zack seemed to have recovered from his lack of words and spoke up.

“By the way, where are we going?” 

“To Nibelheim.”


	27. Chapter 27

Jas’ mako blue eyes fluttered open hours later and she sat up to stretch lightly, taking her location into account as she did so. The lounge was empty, an unusual occurrence but not when there was a 1st Class sleeping away on the couch there, so she disregarded the fact and instead headed back up to her apartment. She grimaced at the stiffness in her back and shoulders, taking a second in the elevator to try and stretch it out before she made it to empty apartment. 

Propping Heaven’s Wing against the wall of her bedroom, the blonde gathered pair of night clothes and jumped into a hot shower, washing away the built up sweat and grim on her hair and body. Something was nagging at the back of her mind as she washed the cherry blossom lather from her hair before applying conditioner to her damp and flat blonde locks. The issue refused to reveal itself to her and she absentmindedly applied apple spice body wash before simply standing under the spray for a good five minutes just thinking. 

Slipping out of the shower, Jas died her body and most of her hair before slipping on the clothes. The dull ache in her right shoulder increased to a throbbing sensation before it turned into a piercing pain. Gritting her teeth at the sudden sensations flaring up her nerves, Jas gasped lightly when a second gold wing sprung from her shoulder to join the first that had also appeared. 

Letting out an irritated sigh, the blonde hung her head as the gold and white feathers drifted around her for a minute before a voice invaded her thoughts. No, not a voice, voices, and a lot of them speaking in sync. Pressing her hands to her ears, Jas could still hear them whispering to her in urgent but muffled words, like she was underwater. Her phone rang from its perch on the charging doc and silenced the strange whispers. She quickly grasped the object and flicked it open.

“Jas here.”

“ _Hey, Jas, it’s Zack._ ”

“What’s up? Aren’t you on assignment right now?” 

“ _Yeah! That’s the great part about it! Guess where me and Seph and Cloud are right now!!_ ” A blonde brow rose slightly at the nickname for the silver general, but Jas elected to ignore it for now.

"Costa del Sol?"

" _Nope!! We're in Nibelheim!! Cloud doesn't look very excited, but I think he's still in shock since we just arrived._ " Zack chuckled on the other end and the blonde smiled lightly.

"Oh, well then, tell him to say hi to mom for me, I never did get the chance to see her after that whole fiasco with me being dead and everything. And be careful out there, Nibel wolves and dragons get territorial this time of year." 

" _Yeah, yeah; will do. I'll call ya later; see ya, say hi to Aerith for me the next time you see her!_ "

"I will, bye, Zack." The line was cut and Jas closed her phone with a light ‘snap’; it had probably taken her friend forever to get a strong enough signal for the call. Returning to the problem at hand, the 1st stroked a hand along the feathers of her second wing, taking a moment to marvel at the softer gold downy feathers that rested towards the base of the appendages. It reminded her very much of a gold chocobo, which she had only seen twice in her life. 

Sighing at the time on the clock, she willed the wings away before curling up under the blankets of her bed, taking note that tomorrow she would be going down to visit Zack’s girlfriend. 

***

Jas loved the weekends, spending time by herself as she pleased and tending to the flowers with Aerith were both things she cherished after a week of nonstop work, though she wasn’t looking forward to the usual speech of ‘a 17 year old girl shouldn’t have such dark circles under her eyes!’ again. The blonde would admit that Aerith had become sort of a sister to her, an older sister too, even though Jas was older than her by a good year or so. 

The only thing that she disliked about her weekly visits was the disguise she had been told to wear by Tseng after her second visit to the church. Apparently having two high ranking and highly identifiable members of SOLDIER visiting a church in the slums was a security risk, so he had insisted that she do her best to keep out of sight while visiting. And so, Jas had thrown together a neat little outfit that made her look like a simple Wutian living in the slums. Her eyes really couldn’t be covered up, since the artificial light made the mako glow slightly more noticeable, but no one seemed to take a second glance at her anyway. 

The blonde took an old, unused service elevator to the outside and slipped through the streets to the underside of the plate. The church came into sight faster than usual and the blonde noticed that she had a slightly faster pace than usual. Forcing herself to slow to avoid suspicion, she slowed and entered the old church silently. As usual, Aerith turned and slightly brightly at her before eying her outfit.

“I still don’t know how you manage to bundle all that hair up and have it not look suspicious.” A light laugh escaped the blonde as she crouched down next to the brown haired girl and pulled the wing off, sending waves of spikes cascading down to the floor.

“It takes a while, that’s for sure, but I’ve gotten the hang of it. Zack says ‘hi’ by the way.” 

“Oh, I actually talked to him this morning actually, just a little while ago. Sounds like something happened up there.” A pang of worry and curiosity shot through her, but Jas pushed it down knowing that Zack wouldn’t have told Aerith any details. Not to mention, when the topic of Nibelheim was brought up, the voices from the previous night rose up again, making her wince at the sudden loudness.

“Are you ok?” Wide greens eyes peered up at her and Jas nodded firmly with a light smile.

“Just fine.” Aerith stared at the blonde as the older girl occupied herself with pulling out a small weed that had poked up through the soil. With a deep breathe, she spoke.

“Are you hearing voices? In your head, one that sounds like it’s actually many speaking at the same time?” When Jas froze, Aerith had the only answer she needed to continue.

“They sound urgent and worried about something, but you don’t know what. What they want you to do?”

“How…?” She trailed off, eyes glued to the flower under her fingertips. 

“I’m an Ancient. The voices you hear, it’s the voice of the Planet, I can hear Her and you can too it seems.” 

“But why? I’m not an Ancient, I’m just a girl from Nibelheim, there’s nothing special about me.” It was mostly a lie, but the flower girl didn’t know about her wings yet, and she had no intention of revealing them unless absolutely necessary. 

“I’m not sure exactly, but I have a few guesses. I think She wants you to go to Nibelheim, to stop something bad from happening.” Aerith explained softly, see the tinge of curious fear in the glowing blue eyes of her friend.

“Even if I wanted to go, it would take a miracle for that sort of clearance to be issued, and I can’t just up and leave without reason, that could put a lot of people in a bad spot. Plus, there are already two 1st Class SOLDIERs there, it would be suspicious if I walked in and demanded to be sent there without a clear reason.”

“I don’t know what you should do honestly. Military stuff always did go right over my head.” A soft chuckle emitted from closed, smiling lips at the joke and Aerith was glad she had managed to diffuse a bit of the growing tension. 

“It is ridiculously complicated.” The blonde agreed. “And even I have trouble keeping up with it now that I’ve been promoted.”   
“How’s that been going? Have you been getting more rest? Because no girl your age should look as tuckered out as you do.” Blue eyes rolled while pink lips quirked up in a smile.

“It’s been getting better, and I’ve been managing a few more hours rest than last week.” 

“Good, would you like to have lunch with me later today? My mother wants to meet you.” 

“That sounds wonderful, Aerith, thank you.” With an exchange of smile, the girls returned to the light atmosphere of tending flowers and exchanging stories, pushing the voice of the Planet to the back of their minds since there was nothing to be done about it at present.


	28. Chapter 28

Less than a week passed and it seemed like the Planet was screaming at her to get a move on and go to her hometown. Luckily no one was present to see her pacing and rubbing her temples on the roof of the ShinRa building, or at least, that’s what she thought until Tseng showed himself rather unexpectedly. 

“You know, the medical center has very strong migraine medication.”

“Oh I know, but with my metabolism I’d have to take half the freakin’ bottle and even it probably wouldn’t help my problem.”

“I can imagine, having the Planet yelling in your head all the time must be rather infuriating.”

“Aerith told you then?”

“No, your last conversation wasn’t actually as quiet as you must have thought. Don’t worry; I have no intention of reporting it to anyone.” 

“I know, thank you for that. I don’t suppose I can ask another favor of you?” Jas cast a sidelong glance at the Wutian man that stood beside her, looking out over the city.

“You can, but I will expect you to pay it back one day.”

“Of course.” With a light smile, the blonde snapped out her wings, letting the breeze catch them lightly.

“Cover for me for a while, please.” Without waiting for an answer, she left herself fall from the edge before a single flap sent her rocketing into the sky. The frigid wind nipped the skin of her face as she glided along the air currents towards the north. A trip that would have taken a week using normal transport and a day by helicopter, took a couple hours of flight on wings powered by the enhanced strength of a SOLDIER. 

The closer she got, the lighter the voices became until they became a clear whisper in the back of her mind. ‘Destroy the Calamity’ was what echoed endlessly, the words being a mystery to her even as she folded her appendages and plummeted to land with a gracious sweep of white and gold.

The Nibel reactor loomed before her in an ominous way, but something overtook her and the feeling vanished. It felt like she had been pushed away as her body moved without her wanting to, she didn’t feel afraid though, it was a gentle aura that calmed her as an older, more powerful woman’s voiced replaced the Planet’s.

‘ _Forgive me for intruding, but this is my wrong to right, my daughter._ ’ She swept into the reactor and past the outer chamber of tanks to the inner. Jas watched as she drew her blade at the silver haired general that stood before the main tank, but when he turned, his eyes were a glowing scarlet instead of the green/blue they should have been, a mirror of the woman, if it could be called as such, that inhabited the large tank. 

“So you’ve come, trying to save a planet doomed to death.” The voice that spoke sounded more feminine than Sephiroth’s.

“Not this time, Calamity. You will not have Lucrecia’s son, you will not have this world. I shall destroy you here.” Jas’ own voice echoed with an ethereal power as the white blade seemed to glow in her grasp. Masamune was held at the ready and the two opposing forces clashed with the ringing of metal on metal, sparks flying through the air, and feathers caught in the drafts caused by unearthly fast movements.

The sounds of their fight rang down the mountain side, echoing of the rocks until it reached the enhanced ears of several people. Zack took a moment to register the sound before taking off without a word, moving in an all-out sprint to get to the reactor. The black haired SOLDIER made it halfway before being lifted into the air, an oddly familiar feeling as he looked up to find the grim face of Angeal looking ahead.

“Angeal! What’s going on man?”

“I’m not sure Zack, but it doesn’t sound good.” Zack’s face fell into an uncharacteristically sober expression as they reached the top of Mt. Nibel, only to duck down as the entire front exploded outward. A blur of white, black, and gold streaked across the clearing, decimating anything in its path as what looked to be Jas and Sephiroth battling in earnest. 

In confusion, Angeal nearly ran towards them to break the duo apart when he was stopped by a red clad arm.

“What are you doing, Genesis!? We need to stop them before they kill each other!” The older man paused, seeing the mix of emotions on his friends face.

“No, we’ll just be collateral damage to them; it’s not Jas and Sephiroth, Angeal, this is something much bigger.” Even as his friend spoke, Angeal noticed the odd glow in the pair’s eyes, one an ominous scarlet and the other a rich, lighter blue than the typical glow of mako. Jas’ wings even seemed to glow in the darkened sky as they continue to exchange blows. 

The Calamity hissed as the glistening ivory blade cut a thin line through the sleeve and into the flesh of Sephiroth’s left arm, just above the elbow. The woman possessing Jas didn’t break the emotionless mask as she continued fighting, her lithe body twisting away from a strike. Both were growing tired of the other’s dodging and evading, but it was The Calamity that took action first, having spotted the striking crimson of Genesis’ coat, Sephiroth’s body twisted suddenly, strike aimed straight at the pair that had no time to avoid the strike, even as Genesis pushed Angeal down out of Masamune’s range. 

Metal tore skin, blood stained the air, and eyes widened in horror, but it was Jas who had taken the hit. The enemy’s bloody sword impaled through her left shoulder, just above a pounding heart. Blood was already gushing from the wound, and more fell from parted lips as a gloved hand grasped the blade firmly, cutting open another line through the leather and into her palm, halting its withdrawal. 

The ethereal glow had receded somewhat, giving rise to the fact that the real Jas had had a hand in defending Genesis and Angeal from harm. Electricity crackled through the air, jumping across her skin as she glared defiantly at the furious figure that glared down at her. 

The glare turned to sheer pain as the silver haired man gasped and fell to his knees, clutching his head in both hands. The weight of Masamune pulled the blonde to her knees as well as her eyes swam with confusion even as the invisible figure of her conscious seemed to radiate in triumph. An orange glow caught her eye as flames slowly began to consume the mako reactor, Zack stood before it, materia in hand as he threw another barrage of Firaga at the already inferno engulfed structure. 

Sephiroth’s form collapsed, unconscious, to the earth as Genesis moved to support Jas while Angeal helped by pulling the long sword from her as carefully as possible, giving Genesis the opportunity to caste a high level cure over her. 

The glow of mako had fully replaced the earlier shine of her eyes as the blonde 1st looked around dazed, seeing several figures move to loom over her, but the fearful look in Genesis’ own orbs was the last thing she saw as her fatigue won out and her eyelids fluttered closed.


	29. Chapter 29

Two full days passed since the three 1sts had carried their two unconscious friends down the mountain and to Cloud’s home, which surprising was larger than it looked, having three spare rooms since both of Mrs. Strife’s children had left home. Sufficed to say, carrying her injured and deathly pale and blood covered daughter into her home was not the way Genesis had imagined meeting Jas’ mother. 

Cloud had managed to explain the situated with the bits and pieces Zack had told him when he showed up after seeing the smoke from the burning reactor, which had also promptly exploded when the flames reached the gas takes stored in a back area, and thankfully his mother had accepted the meager details. 

At the moment, Zack and Angeal were resting in the third room, Cloud was helping his mother in-between sending messages to Tseng to cover up the blonde 1st’s absence, and Genesis was in the same he had been when they first came to the house, sitting in a chair beside Jas’ bed. Neither of the two had shown any signs of waking, but it was always hard to tell after using materia to heal injuries, and though he would never willingly admit it, the auburn haired man had been worried out of his mind. Not once had he spent more than a few minutes away from her side.

Late in the afternoon, Genesis noticed a light pressure on the hand that was loosely gripping the blonde’s and he jerked awake from his dozing as Jas’ eyes opened, blinking a few times in confusion.

“You’re in your mother’s house. Your old room if I’m correct.” He explained as he shifted to sit on the side of the bed, resting their hands on his lap.

“Genesis, you’re alright?” 

“Yes, I’m fine and so is everyone else. What happened?” 

“She was saving her Planet from the Calamity.” The former 1st blinked, utterly confused, but still nodded.

“I’m going to tell the other’s you’re awake. You’re family’s been very worried about you.” The blonde smiled lightly, an amused light in her eyes.

“Alright.” She relaxed back against her pillow and watched Genesis leave the room, listening as the voices grew louder in excitement and footsteps all headed to her room where Zack all but bounced through the door followed closely by an equally overjoyed Cloud. Angeal took to leaning against the doorframe, a smile on his face that matched the others, while Genesis reclaimed his seat at the blonde’s side, taking her hand back in his. 

“You’re finally awake!” The younger black haired man smiled brightly, getting a chuckle from Jas as she sat up, taking a second to register the black night gown she was dressed in.

“Yeah. How long was I out? And how’s Sephiroth?”

“You’ve been out for two days now, and Sephiroth is in the other room, still asleep.” Angeal filled in, taking a few steps closer to the bed; his curiosity held back by his regard for his friend’s health, she had almost died after all. 

“I see. I’m glad nothing too serious happened to either of us then.”

“What happened, Jas? What exactly were you attacking?” Her blue eyes seemed to glaze over slightly, focusing on nothing and at the same time putting everyone on edge.

“I can’t explain it, but She can.” Jas’ orbs snapped into focus suddenly and everyone in the room turned to find a regal woman standing there. She had long blonde hair and shining blue eyes, a gown of gold adorned her figure even though extravagant armor seemed to faze in and out of focus around her. 

No one moved to grasp weapons or even take defensive positions against the woman, thought Genesis did shift slightly so that he could intercept any sort of attack against Jas. The blonde SOLDIER herself hadn’t taken her eyes from the woman, since she had never actually seen her, only heard her voice and felt her through her conscious. 

“I believe I must explain myself.” She paused for but a second, eyes strangely flickering between the two Strife siblings.

“I am Minerva, the creator of this Planet. My purpose was to defeat the Calamity, Jenova, and to stop a future that would have wrought my world to ruin. To accomplish this, I created a separate entity that was still a part of me, so that when the time came, I could destroy her and keep the world safe once more. That was the role of the being that would become Jasmine Strife.” Two pairs of feminine blue eyes locked on each other as silence echoed through the room until it was, surprisingly, broken by the younger Strife.

“That actually makes sense.” When everyone’s attention snapped to him, Cloud flushed a little in embarrassment, but still caught the curious gaze of his sister as she silently urged him to continue. 

“Well, Mom said she could never remember exactly how you were conceived, right? And Hojo actually cornered me a while back, demanding a blood sample to compare with yours, but he started ranting about me not having some sort of substance in my body that you did. I didn’t stay long enough to figure out everything exactly, and then there’s the wings and the degradation healing that you were able to do.” 

“Did the future really turn out that bad?” Zack questioned in disbelief, glancing around a little bit.

“Would you like to know so badly?” When she received a few nods or shrugs in response, Minerva sighed and nodded. 

“Very well. He can tell you about what would come to pass if Jasmine had not come into being.” She waved a hand and the air beside her shimmered before a figure materialized there. Spikey blonde hair stood out clear as day, coupled with mako bright blue eyes. It looked like an older, stronger, and enhanced Cloud, with a black outfit that seemed to be like a modified 1st Class uniform, a wolf head decorated the single pauldrons he wore and a massive sword, nearly the size of the Buster that Zack carried, was strapped to his back. The stranger’s gaze shifted around the room, lingering on Zack for a moment and then his younger doppelganger.

“And who might you be then?” Genesis spoke up, wary of the man’s presence. 

“My name’s Cloud. Cloud Strife.”


	30. Chapter 30

Suffice to say, the man’s introduction had been something everyone had thought, but couldn’t really believe. It took a few minutes for everyone to wrap their heads around the name, and it was Zack managed to recover and speak first.

“What?!” The man had been stoic about the entire ordeal, but jumped slightly at the sudden, loud outburst. 

“You’re a SOLDIER?!” The overexcited puppy of a SOLDIER whipped his head between the two Clouds until Angeal took the liberty of landing a solid smack to the back of his head. 

“Actually,” The black clad Cloud sighed, a terribly withdrawn look to him, “No, I never made it to SOLDIER, my enhancements were because of Hojo, after the Nibelheim Accident.” When he saw the curious looks from the room’s occupants, he decided to just continue.

“Zack, Sephiroth, and I were sent to investigate the mako reactor in Nibelheim along with another infantryman. Jenova, the Calamity that Hojo had stored in the reactor, took over Sephiroth and set him on the town. He burned everything to the ground, killed Mayor Lockheart, injured Tifa, and managed to beat Zack before I recovered enough to reach the reactor. I took the Buster Sword and stabbed Sephiroth with it, but it didn’t kill him. I ended up being stabbed by the Masamune, but I managed to throw Sephiroth and Jenova’s head into the reactor before I collapsed. Hojo found Zack and I after that and used us to try and recreate Sephiroth, but it failed and he left us in the ShinRa Mansion’s lab. Four years passed before Zack broke us both out, though I was under severe mako poisoning and couldn’t do anything. We had been on the run as fugitive specimens for a year when the military finally caught up to us. Zack hid me in the cliffs just outside Midgar and protected me, but he was killed.” Again, his eyes flickered to Zack before focusing on the floor underneath his boots. 

Jas gripped Genesis’ hand tightly as she blinked back tears. She could tell, and just about everyone else could too, that the story was just a small part of what had happened to him. This Cloud looked to be maybe mid-twenties, but his eyes seemed ancient, worn by conflict and despair. Zack himself felt slightly conflicted, knowing that an alternate version of himself had had such a large impact on his friend’s life, even though he himself had no part in such events. It was like feeling completely responsible for something he had done but at the same time he didn’t, and he rarely felt responsible for anything he admitted to. 

Acting on a spur of the moment feeling, the black haired teen jolted forward and tossed his arms around the black clad Cloud, who flinched back slightly in surprise. They stood still for a few seconds before Zack drew back again, a small smile on his lips and an unreadable emotion in his eyes.

“You’re one tough guy, going through stuff like that.”

“And that’s not even all of it, is it?” The younger Cloud looked up at his alternate self, who looked back with soft, sad eyes as Zack backed off again, seeing on the foot of Jas’ bed.

“No, it’s not.” The tall blonde shook his head, sighing lightly, but a door closing downstairs made everyone freeze as Mrs. Strife, though she insisted they call her Evalyn since she really wasn’t that old, called that she was back. It took a second for anyone to react, and when they did, Minerva was gone and the other Cloud had paled slightly. Thanking fast, the younger Cloud grabbed the elder and pulled them both into the small closet and out of sight just as Evalyn walked through the door, a bright gleam entering her eyes at the sight of her daughter awake.

“How’re you feeling, darling? Did you need anything?”

“No thanks Mom, I’m alright for now. And Genesis can get me something if I need it.” With a nod, the woman swept from the room, blonde hair swishing as she turned and headed back downstairs. Jas chuckled lightly as the two Clouds removed themselves from the cramped closet, the older rubbing his shoulder from where the guard of his sword had jammed into it. The girl’s eyes twinkled in amusement as the red head beside her rolled his eyes. 

Zack jumped lightly when the Goddess suddenly appeared beside him, in the same place she had been, and everyone’s focus was on her.   
“So, what now?” Angeal questioned, looking somewhat uncertain about the whole situation. 

“That’s for you all to decide, my part is done.” 

“What about you?” The older Cloud blinked when Jas spoke, turning his eyes to the floor.

“Back to the Lifestream, I guess. I’m actually a lot older than I look, thanks again to Hojo. My friend Vincent was the only one still alive when I died; the other’s passed from natural causes.” He shrugged lightly, but there was still a hint of pain in his expression. Sympathy and understanding were expressed by just about everyone in the room and there was silence for a while before Jas perked back up again, Genesis drawing back slightly at the look in her bright blue orbs. 

“Then just stay here.” Even Minerva blinked in surprise at the proposal, looking at the man in question before her gaze drifted to his younger self then the blonde woman. The youngest Strife nodded enthusiastically beside Zack, who looked excited himself. With uncertainty, the alternate Cloud glanced at the ethereal woman, who shrugged lightly. 

“It is your choice, should you take it, you will have to wait to rejoin the Lifestream.” She cautioned lightly. 

“I don’t suppose I could think about it for a little while?” 

“Very well. I’ll give you seven days, and then I shall return.” Without a reply, the Goddess vanished in a shimmer of light that faded seconds later. Silence followed for a few minutes before Angeal stood up, tugging a confused Zack with him.

“I’m going to check on our other sleeping friend, Genesis?” With a light nudge from Jas, the auburn haired man huffed and followed, closing the door behind him. 

“Well then. This is going to take some explaining, especially when Mom finds out.” Jas chuckled lightly, slipping out of the bed and to the dresser, slipping on a pair of plain pants before slipping her black shirt over her nightgown then tugging the gown off. Her brother laughed a bit, taking a seat on the bed behind her and grabbing the brush left on the nightstand to run it through the think blonde spikes of the woman’s hair.  
“That and the whole, names thing; we can’t call both of you Cloud, it’ll get confusing and knowing Zack, he’ll use it to mess with you two to no end and annoy the rest of us in the process.” That got a light laugh from the older man, even if it was brief.

“You can call me whatever you want.” At this, Jas scowled at him.

“Absolutely not; you have to have some sort of idea of what we can call you.” 

“Fenrir then.” He submitted with a shrug and a light sigh, even though the blonde woman was now smiling lightly.

“Alright then, Fenrir.” 

“…Was that like, a nickname or something?”

“The name of my motorcycle.” 

“Oh…”

“Hey Ja-”

“Not for a very long time, so stop thinking about it.”

“But-”

“Cloud.”

“Fine.”


	31. Chapter 31

Jas strapped her sword harness around her waist and adjusted the straps a bit before swing Heaven’s Wing over her shoulder, hearing it snap against the magnet as it held fast.

Upon entering the second spar room where Sephiroth had been sleeping, the trio of blondes found it empty. Placing her hands on her hips with a light huff, Jas turned to start down the stairs when the familiar ringtone of her PHS sounded, making Cloud jump slightly as he juggled the devices from his pocket before managing to toss it to his sister. With a chuckle, she snapped it open.

“Jas here.”

“ _Jas, good to hear from you, finally_.” The 1st cringed a bit at the tone Tseng all but hissed from the other end of the call.

“Yeah, something kinda came up, sorry about that.” 

“ _It’s fine. Officially you were assigned to a low key mission just outside Rocket Town for the past few days, but you’ve recently been reassigned to meet up with a group from the science division that’s on their way to investigate the mako reactor in Nibelheim_.” 

“Well, that’s going to be fun. Alright, when and where are we doing the rendezvous?”

“ _North Corel, 0600 tomorrow_.”

“Copy. Thanks Tseng.” 

“ _Watch your back, Strife, Hojo’s not in the best of moods of recent._ ” With a ‘click’ the call ended, leaving Jas with a light frown, even though it disappeared in a second as she continued on her path with the two following close behind. The 1st glanced back, noticing that Fenrir seemed to slow, gazing around at everything, obviously lost in memory. Ignoring the sounds of her mother bustling about the kitchen, Jas continued to the backyard. 

The four 1st were lingering around talking, Sephiroth looking very uneasy about everything that had happened. Hearing the approaching footsteps the group turned, and Sephiroth found himself looking rapidly between the two blonde males. Fenrir had a hand resting on the handle of his sword, and though to the average person he just looked casual, any experienced fighter could see the tension in his shoulders and the cold and hard look in his eyes.

“How’re you feeling, Seph?” 

“Like I got mauled by a pack of Nibel wolves, but it’s getting better. That _thing_ isn’t in my head anymore at least.” He grumbled slightly, crossing his arms over his chest as if the very thought of something possessing him was an insult and blow to his pride. 

“Well it could be worse from what I’ve heard, but it wasn’t, so let’s not dwell on it. Hojo will be here tomorrow, later in the afternoon, to check on the reactor, he probably knew about what was inside it. Which means he’s not going to be very happy about all this.” 

“What are we supposed to do about it though? It’s not like we can just rebuild an entire reactor in a day.” Zack piped up from his place beside his former mentor, who was pensively gazing at the dirt beneath his feet. 

“I don’t think there’s anything we can do, the reactor’s gone and it’s not coming back any time soon, if at all.” Brushing a hand through his hair, Cloud’s eye drifted up to the mountain where residual smoke still lingered in the thin air far above them. A moment of silence drifted over the group until Fenrir stepped forward just a bit.

“I think I might have a way to explain the reactor being destroyed, but we’re going to have to find someone first.” His gaze flickered between each person, lingering warily on the general for an unnoticeable instant before looking to Jas for confirmation, to which she gave a nod.  
“Alright, it’s a good a start as any. Where are we looking?” 

“ShinRa Mansion.” Zack and Sephiroth both scowled a bit at the thought of going back to the accused mansion, though you could hardly tell since Sephiroth always had a stern expression about him. 

“Ok, so Genesis, Fenrir, and I will go search the mansion, the rest of you can hang around here for a while, the townspeople will probably be wondering why the famous Silver General got carried back from the mountain unconscious, plus we’ll be able to get there without being seen.” Feline eyes scanned over Fenrir warily, uncertain of this mysterious man’s intentions since he had yet to be informed of exactly who he was, though he was close on his assumption of him being yet another member of the Strife family. 

When no one spoke out against the idea, Jas unfurled her wings with a flourish that made Genesis grin in approval before doing the same and taking to the air. Fenrir stared at the massive expanse of white and shimmering gold feathers for a moment, half consciously wrapping an arm around the slightly smaller woman’s waist before they both shot into the sky. The feeling of the wind was familiar and almost welcoming, even if it only lasted a few minutes until they landed just inside the gates of the building. 

Without hesitation, Fenrir walked ahead into the building with the couple following close behind. The monsters that normal inhabited the area seemed to have been scared off by something, seeing as they had yet to encounter even the smallest threat besides the old stairs that led down into the laboratory. He led them to a small side room occupied by nothing by old, dust covered coffins before hefting the lid of the first one on the right open. Inside, where one would think to find a skeleton or decayed corpse, was a man. Dressed in black and scarlet, and with a gold gauntlet covering his left arm; strangely long black hair obscuring a few of his features even as his eyes snapped open to reveal unearthly crimson orbs. 

“You came sooner than I expected, Cloud.” The blonde male looked slightly taken aback, but still a slight bit hopeful.

“Vincent, you’re memories?”

“Completely intact thanks to Chaos’ persuasions, I don’t know whether to thank him or hate him.” Jas peered at the man curiously as he rose and stood with one fluid moment, noticing a rather unique tri-barreled gun resting at his side. Neither of the 1st flinched when the red eyes of the man snapped to them, only blinked slightly, though Jas could feel Genesis’ arm tighten its hold around her waist. 

“Who are these?” Vincent glanced back at Fenrir before returning to the SOLDIERs.

“Jasmine Strife, but you can call me Jas.” She introduced herself simply before Fenrir could reply.

“Genesis Rhapsodos.” The crimson clad former SOLDIER chimed in after her.

“Vincent Valentine.”


	32. Chapter 32

Jas didn’t really know what to think about Vincent as Fenrir explained how the two knew each other. Knowing that he had been a former experiment just seemed to add to everyone’s growing distaste for the scientist. After introductions had been finished, the small group moved outside the mansion and its secret laboratory after replacing everything to make sure it looked like nothing had been disturbed. 

The blonde 1st was perched on the corner piece of the railing just outside the door, learning forward just a bit more than usual to compensate for the weight of Heaven’s Wing on her back. Strands of spikey blonde fell down her front as she watched the familiar shadow of a dragon circle towards the peak of the mountain. She had expected for the beasts to reclaim their nesting grounds eventually, but not so soon. 

Genesis sat on the steps below her, waiting for Fenrir and Vincent to come out of the mansion. When the pair did emerge, the auburn haired man all but leapt from his seat and drew his blade leveling it at Fenrir.

“I can’t take it anymore; show me what you can do with that blade of yours!” The blonde looked a little taken aback, but smirked a little and stepped forward, drawing the massive blade from its holder. While they spared, Vincent turned to the second Strife as she jumped to her feet and leaned against her former perch. 

“How did you manage to get into SOLDIER?” She glanced back at him, an amused glint in her eye at the memory.

“It’s quite the story really. I actually spent two months wandering around between the plate and the slums since the guys at the recruitment center sent me away without a second thought. I ended up stealing an apple for a little kid I saw in an alley below plate, but ran straight into Genesis as fate would have it.” She paused as a chuckle spilled from her lips, “The infantry man that chased me caught up and I basically wiped the floor with him, at thirteen. Genesis basically dragged me to the ShinRa building to enroll me as a SOLDIER once I told him why I was in Midgar, since I still had my accent back then he could tell I wasn’t from there. That’s basically how I got in. How’d you and Fenrir meet?” 

“Fenrir?”

“Cloud; that’s what he wanted to be called since there’s another Cloud here in this… reality? I guess.” She explained when Vincent raised a brow slightly, obviously confused until Jas nodded her head towards the blonde crossing blades with the former 1st. 

“I see. There isn’t much to tell. He found me in the ShinRa Mansion on his quest to defeat Sephiroth and in the process stop him from summoning Meteor, a calamity that would have destroyed the world. I agreed to travel with him because I knew Sephiroth’s mother, Lucrecia, before I became one of Hojo’s experiments.” Nodding, Jas turned a bit, putting her back to the spar to face the crimson eyed man with an outstretched hand.

“I hope we can work together, Vincent.” Hesitantly, the gunman grasped the outstretched hand lightly in his own, furrowing his brows when she gripped his tightly, though she still smiled with an unwavering expression. The former Turk’s eyes widened considerably when she shifted her weight and threw him forwards over her shoulder. He was launched through the air and collided with the red clad man, who at that moment miss stepped and was about to be hit by the second blade that Fenrir had in his left hand, when the two were sent sprawling over the ground in a heap of tangled limbs. 

The crimson rapier had been tossed into the air when Vincent hit Genesis, and the woman stepped forward a bit, doing a dramatic show of swinging Heaven’s Wing from her back and catching the second blade in her left hand before leveling them both at Fenrir. They both fell into fighting stances before lunging at each other, blades clashing in a fury of sparks. 

The two groaning men managed to separate themselves, neither pleased with what had just happened to them, but at the sight of the Strife’s duking it out with dual blades, it was forgotten and replaced with a near awe as they watched the deadly dance.

It had been a long time since Genesis had the chance to watch Jas fight leisurely, going at it for fun instead of for her life. The faintest smile on her lips, the gleam of exhilaration in her bright eyes, the grace of her movements, the strength she possessed to swing both blades with an otherworldly precision; everything about her was the most alluring combination that yielded a deadly beauty. 

Vincent glanced at the man he had collided into, slightly surprised, but at the same time not, to find him completely captivated by the fight, though it was mostly just the woman who was currently holding her own against her brother-of-sorts. Still peeved by being tossed like a ragdoll, Vincent raised his gun and fired off a round that would have just grazed the spike that graced the top of her head, but a flash of white and the path of the projectile was altered to send it straight over. 

Shoving the gun back into its holster, the ex-Turk stalked back towards the mansion, giving the fighters a wide breadth so that he wouldn’t get caught in the thick of it by accident. He watched for a few minutes and the spar dwindled down, ending with both having a blade pressed in a blow that would have killed them. 

Panting, they broke apart, Fenrir with the tiniest of smiles while Jas was beaming. Genesis was by her side in a second, pressing a chaste kiss to her cheek while slipping his sword away from her and sheathing it. 

“When did you learn to fight left handed?”

“Sephiroth taught me during my training period with him, said it would be good incase my dominant arm was wounded or something, plus it’s a good surprise because it’s like a completely different fighting style.” She returned Heaven’s Wing to its place before turning and kissing him properly for a second then pulling back again. 

“We should get back and see what the others have been up to, no doubt Seph’s been confused as hell seeing another Strife.” The red head chuckled and nodded, gesturing for Fenrir and Vincent to follow as they descended via the path, opting to try the challenge of sneaking into the town instead of flying. 

Five minutes later they were slipping through Jas’ window and into the house, where Angeal was sitting in the chair with a book in hand. He looked up as they slunk through the window, eyeing Vincent a bit but didn’t say anything about their newest companion. 

“That didn’t take long.” He piped up, returning to his book.

“Well Fenrir knew what, or well, who, he was looking for. You haven’t been sitting in here this whole time, have you?” Jas inquired even as Angeal shook his head.

“No, I was helping your mother in the garden earlier; she’s a very pleasant conversationalist.” At that, both Strifes eyed the SOLDIER.

“Don’t go getting any idea’s; that would only end in a very awkward situation.” The older man simply shrugged, which only made the blonde woman raise a brow before rolling her eyes.

“Oh, I forgot to mention, Hojo’s heading up, should be here tomorrow around 1500 hours.” 

“What!?!”


	33. Chapter 33

Sufficed to say, no one was very happy about hearing that the cause of of just about all of their problems was going to be coming for a visit, though there was a strange satisfaction in knowing that he wasn't going to find his precious 'ancient' where he left her. Sephiroth was still trying to catch up with all the new faces and at the same time keep a respectable distance between himself and Fenrir once he had been filled in on what had happened to the other Cloud. 

Fenrir himself took to avoiding the silver haired man like the plague, opting for the familiar presence of Vincent or even the other two Strifes, though Jas seemed to be glued to Genesis, which was understandable to him since anyone could tell that they were a couple. 

Evalyn still didn't know of the third blonde or the red eyed ex-Turk and Jas was glad, she really didn't want to impose any more on her mother, or give her a heart attack. Her mother was a strong and independent woman, which was a very great thing for the both of them when her father left, promising to return but never did. Cloud grew up without knowing who his father was or what he looked like, though Jas did her best to describe him. 

The sun was beginning to set when the blonde 1st announced her departure, having changed back into her white uniform, but the auburn haired first was reluctant to allow her to leave and stay alone with the 'demented, vile excuse of a scientist', and much to her annoyance, a few of the other's agreed and even physically held her back from leaving, namely Zack. 

"I'm a 1st Class SOLDIER!!! I think I can handle an un-enhanced civilian! For the love of Gaia Zack, let me go!!" Surprisingly, he did. And Jas, unsuspecting of the sudden lack of backwards pull, hit the ground. With a bit of a groan, the blonde picked herself back and turned to find Vincent grasping the back of the other teen's shirt. 

"I’ll follow her there and back while she’s with Hojo.” His tone held no room for discussion and no one moved to oppose the gunman, though Fenrir seemed slightly surprised but didn’t speak out. They set out just after that, the blonde taking flight for a portion of the journey, which was mostly to the base of the mountain where a chocobo farm was hidden in the fields. 

Renting a simple yellow, Jas make the two hour leisurely trip to North Corel with Vincent following on his own bird. Though nothing of note happened on the trip, the blonde found herself faced with multiple armed townspeople the second she entered the main square of the town. The ex-Turk had made himself scarce, disappearing along with the black he had ridden. 

Slipping down from the saddle as slow as possible, the woman found herself face to face with a rather large man, who also had a weapon leveled at her, which was slightly surprising even though her face remained neutral.

“What you ShinRa scum want now?!” 

“I’m not sure what you mean, but I’m here to rendezvous with a team heading up to Nibelheim tomorrow morning. I don’t want any trouble.” The large bird warked in mild confusion behind her, shifting its large feet and preening at the blonde’s hair gently. 

“You asked for trouble when you started messing with that damned reactor you put up here! Making everyone sick!” He shoved the gun at her, making her take half a step back before straightening again.

“I wasn’t aware the reactor was malfunctioning, but if it’s making people sick then I can repair it, I don’t know a whole lot, just the basics, so if it doesn’t want to be fixed I can shut it down until a team can come and repair it.” The man regarded her with a wary expression before finally nodded and prodding her along, yelling for someone to stable the bird by the inn. 

A shadow flickered in her peripheral vision, but she dismissed it as Vincent following them to the large construct, the ShinRa logo plastered to the side. 

“Please wait here, the interior of the reactor is for ShinRa personnel only.” The large man huffed in irritation, but made no move to follow the SOLDIER up the stairs and inside, though the black shadow managed to slip through behind her.

“What did you plan on doing?” His rough voice echoed in the dark as they moved to the inner chamber, glad to find it a standard core instead of a science reject spot like Nibelheim. 

“Probably break something important and shut it down. When Minerva possessed me, I could feel how these things have been draining the Planet, I guess this sort of problem is also seen to in the future?” 

“In a way. I wasn’t awake when it happened, but when Cloud joined Avalanche after Zack’s death, they began bombing the Midgar reactors, they didn’t get far before President ShinRa ordered to have the sector 7 plate dropped, hoping to crush them.” 

“The plate?! But the slums have thousands of people living down there!”

“He didn’t care. He was more pressed about saving the reactors.” Shaking her head in disgust and horror, Jas stalked into the center of the reactor but paused. The feeling of it was off, almost like the air was too thick to breath and saturated with mako. Beside her Vincent growled deeply, also having noticed the high mako levels.

“No wonder the people are getting sick, this stuff is probably contaminating everything near it. There must be a leak somewhere, but I think it’s safe to assume that this place needs to get shut down fast.” With losing a second, the blonde waltzed to the main control panel and punched in a series of codes before pulling the main lever down. The lights died down until it was only the crimson red emergency lights pulsing slowly over the doors. Without much more to do, the pair exited the building, Jas sealing the doors behind them. 

Slipping her PHS from her pocket, the 1st punched in a number before holding the device to her ear.

“ _Hello, you’ve reached the ShinRa directory, how may I help you?_ ”

“I need the head of the Urban Development department please.”

“ _Of course, please wait one moment while I connect you._ ” A charming but still highly irritating jingle sounded over the phone for a second but was quickly cut off.

“ _This is Reeve Tuesti, head of Urban Development._ ” 

“Mr. Tuesti, this is SOLDIER 1st Class Jasmine Strife, I hear your department is looking for alternatives to mako energy, correct?” 

“ _Oh… um, yes, that is correct._ ” The man’s voice sounded extremely surprised, though most would be if they were suddenly called up by a 1st Class they didn’t know.

“Well I’ve got a busted reactor up here in Corel and a bunch of people that really don’t like mako energy, think you could led me a hand?” 

“ _Yes, of course! I’ll send a team there immediately._ ”

“Thanks, I won’t be here when they get here, but I’ll notify someone so that they don’t give you any trouble, and a bit of forewarning, the mako saturation of the air inside is dangerously high, safety gear is advised.”

“ _Thank you for the warning; I’ll get my people on it right away_.”

“Of course, goodbye.”

“ _Goodbye._ ” The line went dead as Jas reached the large man that was still waiting a ways from the now powerless reactor, he still looked wary of her, but seemed satisfied at the same time. The blonde herself felt satisfied with herself, but also disgusted mostly because it felt like her skin was itching with mako even under her clothes, and it probably was. 

“Well that’s been taken care of. A team looking into alternative energy is being sent up to properly repair and then decommission the reactor.” She smiled, but it looked more like a grimace than anything.

“I guess you ain’t so bad, for ShinRa anyway.”

“I’ll try and take that as a compliment.”


	34. Chapter 34

Spending the night at the inn and gratefully getting a warm shower, Jas was up with the sun, still having about an hour before Hojo was supposed to show up. Settling herself on the roof with two plates of food, Jas handed the second one off to Vincent when he appeared beside her and he took it without a word, nodding his head in a way of thanks. 

When that was finished, the only thing left to do was wait, Vincent preferring to stay out of sight as well as high enough to overlook everything, and Jas tending to the chocobo as it sat in its stall. The yellow cooed softly as she rubbed the soft feathers under its neck, half distracted by a growing commotion in the square.

“Hold on a second Mikouri.” The blonde mumbled, leaving the bird, who gave a light ‘wark’ as if in response. Catching sight of the familiar infantry helmets, Jas jumped high over the crowd, landing squarely in front of the group. 

“Alright, what’s the problem here?” 

“SOLDIER Strife! The people are refusing to allow our convoy into the square.” The captain of the unit spoke, rifle grasped in a tense hold.

“I see, well there’s no need for violence. Park the trucks just outside the town, your unit and I will bring all necessities out to them.”

“Yes, Sir!” The troops marched off, all except for the five person unit that had been at the head of the two truck convoy. Another trooper was sent back with a list of supplies that were easily acquired with the blonde SOLDIERs somewhat good standing with the people.

“Hey! ShinRa girl!!” Stopping, Jas turned to find the large man from the previous day heading straight for her.

“Yes? Is there a problem?” 

“No, I wanted to thank you. My wife insisted.” He looked away from her a bit as if embarrassed by the whole ordeal of thanking a member of the ShinRa Electric Power Company. 

“It’s alright. Personally, it wasn’t my brightest moment of thought, joining SOLDEIR, but I’ve made friends along the way and found something priceless to go with all the amazing memories I have, and now that I’m in, I’ve got ways to change things. That team should be here within the week; hopefully they’ll be able to get a jump start on things and before you know it, we’ll stop using mako energy.” 

“Well I hope you’re right, girl. Good luck.”

“Thanks… ah?”

“Barret, Barret Wallace.” 

“Jas Strife; maybe we’ll meet again sometime, Barret. In the meantime, I hope things here get better. I’ve got to set out; the science department always was strict on transport.” The last part was muttered as the blonde turning, waving over a shoulder as she disappeared out of the square with the large man’s gaze following after her.

“Strife, huh? Sounds familiar somehow.” 

***

Having retrieved Mikouri from the stable, Jas now rode beside the first truck, a unit of troops and supplies loaded into the back while the second vehicle probably held the gear being brought with Hojo. Going as fast as they were the trip between Corel and Nibelheim took half an hour less than the time the SOLDIER had taken. Vincent was forced to follow at a distance, but he was still able to keep an eye on the general happenings of the convoy from where he was. 

As the two trucks rolled to a stop in the middle of town, Sephiroth, Zack, Cloud, and the second trooper where waiting for them. Dismounting the bird, the blonde 1st tossed off a salute just as the truck doors opened to reveal Hojo stalking forwards.

“Well, General, how’s the reactor?” The tone was official, but the undertone used was not very welcomed by any; however, the group could afford to let him know that they knew all his dark secrets yet. 

“We had a slight issue, but it was taken care of.” The silver haired SOLDIER dismissed easily, turning to give orders to the units standing at attention. With narrowed eyes, the scientist shifted his gaze from Sephiroth to the mountain that loomed over them.

“I wish to examine the reactor personally, lead the way to it.” The man was already heading up towards the trail, ignoring Zack’s attempts to get his attention.

“Trooper, with me.” Snapping a salute, Cloud fell in step with his sister as they overtook the scientist, leading the way up the long mountain trail. As they came up on the peak, Hojo rushed forward a ways, eyes widen in disbelief at the still smoking ruins of the reactor. 

“What happened?!” He rounded on Cloud with a harsh glare, but instead came face to face with the older Strife. 

“Please calm down Professor, the General said they encountered a problem, so I’m sure there’s an explanation for this. Besides, Nibelheim doesn’t rely so much on mako energy anyway and the company wasn’t making much of a profit off it either.” Further angered by her words, Hojo stalked to the charred debris, kicking a few pieces down into the large reserve that still left a large hole in the earth that glowed faintly despite the carnage piled on top of it. 

Glancing behind her, Jas found that their entire group had gathered, Genesis stepping up to slip an arm around her waist. Beside him stood Zack and Angeal, and next to Cloud were Fenrir, Vincent, and Sephiroth. 

“I don’t know Professor; I think it looks better this way.” Whipping around, Hojo’s face when from rage to confusion in a heartbeat.

“What is the meaning of this!?” Stepping forward a bit, Sephiroth smirked just the lightest bit, with enough hidden wrath in his eyes to freeze the man.

“Allow me to explain, you see, upon arriving at the reactor, we found evidence of a broken valve at first, but then we took to investigating the ShinRa mansion in hopes of discovering more about the reactor, seeing as it’s one of the older ones, I’m afraid that when we left, a monster we disturbed on our descent destroyed the reactor.” From beside him, Vincent let out a light but highly sarcastic ‘oops’, causing Fenrir to fight down the chuckle building in his chest. 

“Valentine.” The man was hissed out through clenched teeth as Hojo found himself trapped between a mako pit and a group of enhanced individuals, except for Cloud of course, that were all ready to tear him apart.


	35. Chapter 35

Hojo glanced between all the people gathered in front of him, none of them looked please, and with good reason. The Turk Lucrecia had saved with the Chaos materia was not someone the scientist had ever expected to see again, and Hollander’s experiments weren’t as dead as he had been told. 

A dragon roared in the distance, breaking the silence of the peak as the woman strode forward a ways.

“On grounds of illegal human experimentation and with several witnesses, I’m taking you into custody.” The man scoffed, as if insulted by the very thought of it.

“I’m not going anywhere, even if you destroyed Jenova, she still lives.” This time, Fenrir stepped up, eyes narrowed dangerously with a tight grip on his large multi-bladed sword.

“Don’t bother Hojo; no matter how much of Jenova you have in you, it won’t be enough to defeat six SOLDIERs. Not to mention Vincent, who is more than ready to kill you here and now, and Cloud’s got a natural knack for using high level materia, even un-enhanced.” The blonde slipped with sword from its harness, holding it loosely in front of him as the others readied their own weapons, Cloud slipping materia orbs into a pair of borrowed bracers. 

The scientist glanced around a bit before looking back at them, a smug smirk twisting his features as he retrieved multiple red orbs from his pockets, activating them all at once. Fighting multiple summons at the same time was extremely rare, but with as many people as they had, Jas was reassured of their victory; however, the figures that appeared where not ordinary summons. Before them stood exact copies of Sephiroth, Angeal, Genesis, Zack, and Jas along with a Bahamut, Bahamut Fury, and an Ilfrit. And the icing on the cake made of things trying to kill them: Hojo had disappeared. 

“How the heck did he make us into summons?!” Zack exclaimed, clashing blades with the Genesis Summon and throwing it back just as Vincent dashed past him firing off rounds at the Angeal Summon.

“Probably used out data from the V.R. Room.” Genesis muttered, blocking the massive blade of the Sephiroth copy. A flash of gold and white struck the massive Bahamut F. summon, knocking the beast to one side as Heaven’s Wing scored a massive gash down its side; similarly, Angeal had taken to the sky, facing off with the Bahamut between helping Cloud with the Ilfrit set on sending them all up in an inferno. 

“We need to finish these off and go after Hojo! We can’t let him get too far!” The blonde 1st grit her teeth, countering several attack as crackling energy built up around her, setting off her Thunder Strike Limit Break and blowing a hole clear through the Fury before she swooped down on Ilfrit, freeing Angeal to focus on the Bahamut. 

A roar split the air and Vincent lunged forward, now Chaos, to tear at the Angeal Summon as Fenrir finally felled the copy of Zack, though he looked fairly disturbed as the summon faded back into a crimson orb. A ways away, Sephiroth had thrown the Jas summon back, her form colliding with the Sephiroth copy before both where stabbed through from either side by the silver and auburn haired SOLDIERs. 

The Bahamut fell with a shrill cry, followed closely by the bellowing of Ilfrit before Zack managed a killing blow that would have severed a normal person in half on the Genesis Copy; all of them reverting back to their materia forms and falling to the ground. 

“Cloud! Zack! Gather up these materia and keep them safe, then head down to the town, make sure everything’s ok there, we’re going after Hojo!” Getting a nod from the youngest Strife and his friend, Jas spread her wings and with a single stroke sent herself sailing down the maintain side, followed closely by Vincent, Angeal and Genesis, with Sephiroth and Fenrir sliding down the steep slopes of Mt. Nibel, kicking off inclines to fall through the air faster and keep up with their winged companions.

At the foot of the mountain, the two squads of infantry had formed a single line, weapons trained on them. The two trucks could be heard driving down the trail away from Nibelheim, but before anyone could pursue, the Captain of the fist squad ordered them to stand down. A few of the troops looked a little hesitant, some even began to shake as Sephiroth seemed to glides down the final stretch of slope before stalking towards them, Masamune held at the ready. 

“You’re aiding in the escape of a criminal, stand down or be taken into custody.” His dark tone mixed with a deadly glare sent them all scurrying off to the sides, throwing their guns to the ground and letting them pass. Soaring through the sky, Jas glanced down, keeping an eye on the trucks for a moment before tilting her wings and rocketing towards the ground, sending off several blizzaga spells. The huge chunks of ice crashed down, forcing the trucks to a screeching stop in order to avoid a collision. 

Using the ice as elevation, the winged SOLDIERs alighted down, swords drawing and ready for anything. The tires of the vehicles tossed up rocks and sand as they tried to reverse, but the two black clad figures of Sephiroth and Fenrir where there with Vincent trailing behind just a bit, having changed back from Chaos. The silver haired man looked extremely irritated, though it was impossible to clearly pinpoint ‘why’ with everything that had happened recently, his long blades glowed blue for a moment before he let out an energy strike, cutting one of the cars clear down the center while Fenrir used a similar attack to cleave open the second. 

Two troopers scrambled from the remains, tossing weapons to the side and lying on the ground in submission as Hojo stumbled from the first truck, blood dripping down the side of his face from hitting something.

“You should give up now, there’s no escape.” The blonde SOLDIER moved forward, wings slightly spread as a show of intimidation, but the man standing there simply laughed, a chilling one that put all of them on edge.

“You fools know nothing about Jenova and you never will!” The gun he withdraw from his lab coat never made it past the edge of the white material, arm frozen along with the rest of him as Genesis threw out a Stop spell with the usual flash of greenish light. Angeal moved forward, yanking the gun harshly out of the stiff man’s grip just as the faint sound of a helicopter found their ears. Footsteps from behind allerted them to the presence of Zack and Cloud, the blonde carrying an armful of crimson materia orbs.

"Hey guys, Tseng sent out a few choppers, should be here any minute." Looking rather please with himself, Zack smiled brightly as his companion shook his head lightly, now even he was able to hear the aircraft. 

“Well, this is certainly going to make for an interesting debrief once we get back to Midgar. Which also begs the question, what the heck are we possible going to use to explain everything that’s happened???” Jas sighed heavily when all she got in reply was a bunch of shoulder shrugs and mumbles.

“Gaia, why did I even bother asking you people.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New art added to DeviantArt, see end note for link


	36. Chapter 36

Having decided that their entire group would make the trip back to Midgar, though a few –Fenrir and Vincent- were reluctant. Many people stared at the sight of them, especially with the two ‘dead’ 1st Class SOLDIERs walking in like they hadn’t staged any sort of revolt or other. 

An emergency meeting had been called by the President himself as Hojo was led into the building, hands cuffed behind his back. The head of ShinRa sat at the head of the table, to his right was his son, the Vice President, Rufus ShinRa. Heidegger, Scarlet, Reeve, and Tseng graced the President’s half of the table while Lazard, surprisingly, sat at the other end. Without missing a beat, everyone found a seat, Genesis, Jas, Fenrir, and Cloud on one side, Angeal, Vincent, Zack, Hojo, and Sephiroth lining the other. 

Reeve and Rufus where having their own little conversation off to the side but dropped it when the President began to speak, eyeing the two unfamiliar figures as well as the infantryman. 

“So, why is the head of my science department in handcuffs?” 

“He’s been doing illegal experiments with ShinRa funds.” 

“And what proof do you have?” Vincent rose without a sound besides the light rustle of his blood red cloak, matching crimson eyes holding no emotion. Tseng found himself sitting straighter, recognizing the telltale eyes of an experienced Turk.

“And who are you?” 

“Vincent Valentine, former Turk. I was shot by Hojo before being used as an experiment by him and his assistant, Lucrecia Crescent.” Jas couldn’t help but blink slightly, surprised at how easily he had said it, like he was just talking about the weather. The only person of their ragtag group that didn’t seem the least bit concerned was Fenrir. When all eyes turned to the Professor, Hojo stubbornly stared forward, hands still cuffed, without saying a word. 

Sephiroth sighed mentally, resisting the urge to grab the scientist and throw his pathetic form around the room and force every last scrap of information from him before tossing him from the top of ShinRa Tower. Reigning in his growing tempter, the silver general was grateful for the distraction of Rufus standing.

“With the reports Tseng has given me, I think we have enough evidence to incarcerate you for the rest of your life, Professor, are you doing to try and defend yourself?” 

“You people don’t understand what you’re doing.” The man snidely remarked, still refusing to directly address any one person. Fed up with the man’s superiority complex, especially since this was the second time around he’s had to put up with it; Fenrir slammed a hand to the desk before him, standing in one swift movement that finally drew Hojo’s attention just as the Vice President sat back down.

“You are the one that doesn’t understand. Jenova was not an Ancient, it was a virus set on killing the Planet by using the Centra’s connection to the Lifestream. Gast discovered the truth, but you shot him because Jenova had you wrapped up in false promises.” He snapped his bright eyes to the President, who flinched in just the slightest, before continuing, “And the Promised Land of the Centra doesn’t exist in any physical realm, it exists within the Lifestream, for now. The reactors you’ve placed around the world are slowly draining the Planet’s lifeforce and it’s going to die in the next hundred years if you don’t stop.” Genesis smirked in amusement at the sheer shock in the expression of both the scientist and the president. Bewilderment replaced by anger, ShinRa stood up, glaring at the black clad blonde who glared back without so much as a hint of flinching.

“What would a mountain boy know!? You Strifes have been nothing but a pain in my side! The entire SOLDIER division has!” He withdrew a handgun in the blink of an eye, but at the same time, everyone in the room had weapons ready except for Lazard, Scarlet, Heidegger, Reeve, and of course Hojo. Even Cloud had several materia glowing in the slots of the bracers. 

“Let’s not make any rash decisions, father.” The double barrels of the Vice President’s shotgun were mere inches from the older ShinRa, a daunting sight when you weren’t on the trigger end of the weapon. Completely red from rage and embarrassment, the man slowly placed the gun on table before sitting again. Tseng grabbed it from its place and tucked in into his jacket as everyone followed suit and sat, still high strung and wary for any sign of possible attack. 

“Back to the matter at hand,” Jas began in a light tone to try and diffuse a bit of the tension, “This is Fenrir, and he is, I guess you could say, my older brother of sorts? Anyway, that’s not important, what is important, is that the mako reactors have their extraction levels lowered until a suitable and sustainable energy source can be found, then they will be decommissioned permanently. I’ve taken the liberty of asking Director Tuesti to start on that already, but the rest of ShinRa needs to be on the same page with this.” 

“What would a SOLDIER know about environmental matters? They teach you to fight, not hug trees!” Even Scarlet looked mildly put off by the comment from the green suited man next to her. Rising from her seat slowly and deliberately, Jas stalked around the table to stand behind the man’s chair, leaning forward just the slightest bit.

“And I thought, they taught you how to lead armies, tell me, who will you lead when everyone is dead? Personally, I very much like this world, and I intend to do all that I can to save it from a future that apparently didn’t turn out too pleasant.” The blonde SOLDIER grasped the man’s shoulder, squeezing it to the point of nearly creaking the leather of her gloves while the man under her grip winced in pain. 

“I got shoved to the back of my own mind while Minerva, the Goddess herself, used my body to distract Jenova while at the same time having Zack send that thing’s body to hell. Now, it wasn’t the best thing to ever happen to any of us, it sure wasn’t the worse, but feeling everything the Planet is feeling gets a little overwhelming, understand? You have no idea what those reactors are really doing, and this little point was non-negotiable. The mako reactors will be shut down,” She released the man from her grip before turning to the President once more, “and if they aren’t I’ll personally see to their destruction and make sure someone more capable replaces you.” All eyes were so focused on the woman, that when she ended her speech, silence reigned throughout the room. After a few tangibly tense moments of silence, Scarlet began to laugh, drawing everyone’s attention from the blonde to her as she stood up from her seat to face the female SOLDIER.

“I like this girl!! I don’t care who the president is, I’ll follow a girl like you any day. You’ve got the Weapons Development department with you, Jasmine Strife.”


	37. Chapter 37

After the little incident with the ShinRa president, everything else went along smoothly, with no further outbursts from anyone, even Heidegger kept his harsh words to himself despite the obvious anger in his expression. Once all was said and done, and Hojo was being led away to a holding cell in the basement level of the tower where he would await a proper trial, Zack had been the one to jump from his seat with his usual large smile.

"Alright!! Now that that's out of the way, I'm going to go take a frickin nap because these last few days have been way to exciting." With that, most of the rooms inhabitants left, leaving the two ShinRas and Heidegger alone in the room with Tseng standing just outside the doors.   
No one paid it much attention, the SOLDIERs uncaring about the fate of the current President as they took two elevators up to their floor, Jas offering her own place for Cloud, Vincent and Fenrir to use since she could stay with Genesis for a while, which they accepted gratefully. It seemed like they all had been hit by a weird and sudden exhaustion, rendering all of them into a peaceful rest that lasted nearly an entire day. 

The following morning, Jas woke up and did the first thing on her mind, shower, and then threw on a spar uniform, minus the coat and gloves, that she had gratefully remembered to snag from her quarters before disappearing into Genesis', being quite as to not wake the still very asleep SOLDIER. Exiting into the hall, the blonde stopped short at the sight of Sephiroth, dressed in loose black pants and a simple t-shirt, and Fenrir, wearing his original clothes, but without the weapon harness and pauldron, carrying several bags that were overflowing with food. The very sight of the two together was in itself strange since they had been actively avoiding each other as to not cause any conflict.

"Looks like I missed something while I was in Corel, what are you guys up to this early?" 

"I found Fenrir wandering around the lobby, so I asked him to accompany me to get some supplies for breakfast." The blonde stayed silent, letting Sephiroth speak as they continued down the hall, Jas falling in step with them.

"I see, well I'm glad you're getting along alright, mind if i join you?" 

"Of course not." The silver haired general gave her a strange look, almost like he was confused she even had to ask such a question, before unlocking his apartment and heading straight to the kitchen with both Strifes in tow. The woman took a moment to register the fact that her friend's kitchen was about twice the size of her own, loaded with all sorts of cooking utensils and a mass of shelves and what looked to be a pantry off to one side. In a slight stupor, neither had noticed the man pulling out several pants and placing them on the stove top, setting out different things from the bags that had been set on the countertop along with a collection of knives. When they finally got a hold of themselves, the blondes grabbed knives and set about helping with everything.

*** 

Genesis woke up rather disgruntled, taking a few moments to actually remember that he was back in his apartment in the ShinRa building and not camping out in Jas' old room back in Nibelheim. Throwing himself into a shower to wake himself up some more, the auburn haired man was faintly awake of a multitude of scents coming from Sephiroth's room. 

Tossing on black pants and a plain red shirt, pushing the sleeves up to his elbows, the 1st exited his room and walked down the hall a ways, unlocking Sephiroth’s door with a keycard and simply waltzed in. Voices echoed from the kitchen, drawing the red head to the large room where he leaned against the doorway, simply observing the bizarre scene in front of him. 

Along with the dozens of platters and bowls filled with food covering the medium sized table, there were twice as many pots and pans littering the cooking pace and the three figures bustling about also seemed to be a complete mess. They all seemed to be splattered with weird mixes of flour, pancake/waffle mix, herbs, raw egg/shells, and what looked like food coloring judging by the bright splotches of color decorating their hair.

As Genesis watched, Jas and Sephiroth where flinging bits of food back and forth while Fenrir was crouched down out of their line of fire. When the spikey haired male noticed the commander, he simply blinked at him, not saying a word. A subtle ‘crack’ broke through the taunts the other two were tossing back and forth as Jas had pelted Sephiroth in the back of the head with several eggs, and in retaliation he had dumped the rest of the batter over her head, causing her to gasp in surprise. 

Unable to hold back any longer, the auburn haired man started to laugh, and at the sound, the two froze. At that even Fenrir chuckled, hiding it behind a hand as Jas whirled around, a massive grin on her face.

“Genesis! You’re awake!” She nearly pounced on him with a hug, but he grasped her shoulders to hold her at arms-length. 

“Not until you get cleaned up, you both look like a dreadful mess.” He chuckled as Sephiroth shot him a half glare, but with amusement shining in his own feline eyes, it didn’t do much but inspire even more mirth from his friend. 

“Fine, but that means you and Fenrir have to finish cooking while we get clean, I’ll get the others when I’m finished.” The blonde girl started her sentence with a light pout on her lips but was smiling as she exited the apartment, though she was muttering about having her last spar uniform ruined less than an hour after waking up. 

Jas keyed open her apartment to find one of her gold blankets neatly folded over the back of the sofa as well as a pillow. The door to the spare room was closed and there was a messier than usual head of blonde peeking out from under the thick blankets of her bed when she snuck in, so she grabbed a change of clothes as quietly as possible before slipping back to Genesis’ room to shower to give the two a few more minutes rest.   
Having cleaned up and changed, the blonde SOLDEIR returned to her room only to nearly run headlong into Vincent.

“Oh, good morning, Vincent. Sephiroth’s doing breakfast; I’ll show you there once I get Cloud, Zack, and Angeal.” He nodded, opening his mouth like he was about to say something when heavy footsteps pounded up behind her and someone slammed into her before Jas had a second to react. All three people hit the floor in a tangle of limbs as Zack yelled happily, though he was talking so fast it sounded like gibberish. Jas wheeze from being crushed between the two men, gasping in a grateful breath when the weight on top of her was lifted and Angeal’s scolding voice reprimanded the now sulking Zack while the crimson eyed man helped the blonde to her feet. 

“Well that was interesting.” She muttered, dusting off her shirt. “I got ambushed inside my own apartment, what has the world come to? You know what, I don’t even care, I need to get Cloud.”

“I’m awake.” Like Sephiroth and Genesis, Cloud wore a simple pair of pants and a shirt. Unsurprisingly enough, Angeal and Zack were wearing the traditional 1st Class Uniform. 

“Thanks for being one of the few to not assault me this morning Cloud, I appreciate it. Now, breakfast is being prepared at Sephiroth’s, let’s go people.” The puppy sprang up like a Jack-in-the-Box to follow Jas, with the others trailing behind him, as they entered the silver general’s quarters. The coffee table had been moved to accommodate another table and even a second couch now sat against the wall. Both tables were covered in food and Genesis was exiting the kitchen.

“Ah, finally here. Plates and drinks and such are in the kitchen.” Sephiroth appeared over his shoulder, a ghost of a smile on his lips as everyone exchanged greetings. Zack overenthusiastically dragged the two blonde males to sit on one of the couches as Jas, Genesis, and Sephiroth sat on the second. Vincent and Angeal made themselves comfortable in the two fancy chairs. They ate in silence for a while until the small conversations turned into a group wide competition for who got stuck with the worst missions which in turn led to a verbal fight between Zack and Genesis while everyone else listened and laughed along.


	38. Final Chapter

With a team effort of cleaning everything up, they all returned to the living room, talking about random things. Jas had settled with cuddling next to Genesis, and Zack had been teasing the two about it until Fenrir brought up how he acted around Aerith, which led to an entire conversation about the Ancient. 

“So, what are we going to be doing next? I have a feeling this little adventure with breaking ShinRa down isn’t over.” Jas’ mako bright eyes fell on Fenrir, who shook his head ever so slightly.

“Taking the reactors down was a big step, but now there’s Deepground and AVALANCHE.”

“Deepground, wasn’t that an old medical unit they build in the lower basement of the tower?” Zack mused, getting a nod from Vincent.

“Yes, but thanks to Hojo, it’s turned into one massive force that, in the future, tries to kill everything on the planet by summoning Omega.”  
“That is very big and I have a feeling it’s not going to be very easy.” 

“Well, this Deepground probably isn’t as developed, so we might be able to stop it before anything drastic happens.” The female groaned lightly, dropping her head so that it thumped against Genesis’ shoulder.

“How’d you take them out last time?” 

“Chaos destroyed Omega while the WRO and Avalanche kept Deepground’s troops busy; Vincent was the one to basically take them down.”  
“So we can take down Deepground easily it seems, AVALANCHE will probably be a bigger problem with how radical they are.” Angeal spoke up, looking rather pensive. 

“But AVALANCHE got started when the reactors were constructed, if ShinRa’s taking them down, maybe we can just talk it out with them.” Cloud, who had been mostly silent, chimed in. Many of the gathered looked at him for coming up with a very nonviolent solution to the problem.

“I’m almost glad you came up with something that didn’t involve death and destruction.” Genesis mumbled, twirling a strand of blonde hair between his fingers. A light chiming sound started up from various points in the room and the five SOLDIERs pulled out phones. 

“Looks like the President willingly stepped down… or he’s dead, it doesn’t exactly clarify which, but Rufus is president and has most of the funds that were going to the Science Department were diverged to the Department of Urban Development. Angeal and Genesis have been reinstated as 1st Class, an undercover op. being listed as the cause of their supposed ‘deaths’, and we have leave for the next two days, with an added note that Jas needs to remember to pick up training with the 3rds again.” Sephiroth relayed the information for the others in the room, Jas humming just a bit as she slipped the PHS back into a pocket.

“I completely forgot about all that stuff, man, Tseng is gonna push the worst missions on me for disappearing like that.” She sighed, shifting to show her legs over the arm of the couch while still resting her head on Genesis’ lap even as the crimson 1st chuckled.  
Jumping to his feet, Zack caught everyone’s attention in a second.

“Well we shouldn’t spend free time cooped up inside this place; let’s go out for a bit! We can also check things out below plate too.” Leave it to Zack to try and motivate an entire group of people, but it worked. Everyone was nodding a bit and he seemed fairly pleased with himself.  
It wasn’t unusual to see a 1st out and around, but when they were all together in a group with three other people, it was drawing a bit of a crowd. The gathering people did nothing to deter the group, even as Genesis dragged Jas away to a piercing shop, they returned and the blonde carried a simple gold hoop through one ear. They spent a good two hours milling about above plate before taking the train down below, the item’s there were rather interesting, especially the weapon and materia shops. 

Wall Market drew them all to different places, Jas finding a nice clothes shop where found a fancy maroon red scarf that Genesis insisted that it matched her outfit to a T despite her reluctance, eventually she did purchased it though. The closer they got to Sector five, the more excited Zack got, eventually going on to rant about everyone getting to meet Aerith, and the more Fenrir seemed nervous about it. 

Jas glanced about, a smile on her lips, seeing Vincent and Fenrir talking with Zack, and Cloud seemed overly engaged in a conversation with Sephiroth and Angeal about something that was obviously entertaining them, if their own smiles were anything to go by. 

The steeple of the old church still stood proud, even though the building’s age was greater than all of them, and maybe even combined. The wood doors creaked loudly as Zack bounded inside, yelling happily and startling the young woman that had been crouched by the flower bed.

“Aerith!!”

“Zack!! You’re back! I got worried for a little while, none of my calls got through.” They exchanged a hug before she was turned to face the group of people, though she paled just a bit at the sight of so many ShinRa SOLDIERs.

“Yeah, sorry about that, the reception up at Nibelheim is terrible. Anyway, there are some people I want to introduce you to: these are Sephiroth, Angeal, Genesis, Vincent, Fenrir, Cloud, and you already know Jas of course.” Aerith let out a shaky hello, clinging to Zack’s arm as he chuckled in light amusement.

“It’s alright, ShinRa can’t touch you now, Hojo’s being locked up for a long time, plus now we’re got Fenrir and Vincent to help us out too!!” The blonde shifted slightly, a bit uncomfortable with being so close to the two people he had loved and lost in a past he could remember all too clearly at times. Aerith smiled brightly, happy with the idea that she was finally safe from the scientist, as well as the feelings steeping over from the Lifestream, a happy hum that emanated with words like ‘savoir’, ‘daughter’, ‘guardian’, and ‘free’ floating among the rhythm-less noise at the back of her mind. 

“It’s so nice to meet you all!” The tense atmosphere broke and everyone was once more chatting amongst themselves, though they all seemed very interesting in Aerith and her flowers, at one point Fenrir had actually began to really smile. They all sat in a ring around the flower bed, laughing with such a carefree air that it was almost unnatural. 

“You know, all we need now is music.” Zack laughed as Cloud shot his head towards Jas, who saw the pleading look and immediately shook her head, but the damage was done and everyone had turned towards her.

“No way! I don’t sing.” 

“C’mon! Please! You used to sing all the time before you left to join SOLDIER!” By now everyone was chiming encouragement and the blonde was rolling her eyes, a thin smile on her lips.

“Fine! Fine, but only one song.” A small cheer from the group rose up and then died as she clearing her throat and began to sing. 

(Soldiers-Otherwise)  
_It's time to strap our boots on_  
_This is the perfect day to die_  
_Wipe the blood out of our eyes_  
_In this life there's no surrender_  
_There's nothing left for us to do_  
_Find the strength to see this through_

_We are the ones who will never be broken_  
_With our final breath_  
_We'll fight to the death_  
_We are soldiers! We are soldiers!_

_Woah!  
We are soldiers!_

_I stand here right beside you_  
_Tonight we're fighting for our lives_  
_Let me hear your battle cry_  
_Your battle cry!_

_We are the ones who will never be broken_  
_With our final breath_  
_We'll fight to the death_  
_We are soldiers! We are soldiers!_

_We are the ones who will not go unspoken, (Not go unspoken)_  
_No, we will not sleep_  
_We are not sheep_  
_We are soldiers! We are soldiers!_  
_Yeah!_

_We stand shoulder to shoulder_  
_We stand shoulder to shoulder_  
_We stand shoulder to shoulder_  
_You can't erase us_  
_You'll just have to face us_

_We stand shoulder to shoulder!_  
_We stand shoulder to shoulder!_  
_We stand shoulder to shoulder!_  
_You can't erase us,_  
_You'll just have to face us!_

_We are the ones who will never be broken, (Never be broken)_  
_With our final breath_  
_We'll fight to the death_  
_We are soldiers! We are soldiers!_

_We are the ones who will not go unspoken, (Not go unspoken)_  
_No, we will not sleep_  
_We are not sheep_  
_We are soldiers! We are soldiers!_  
_Yeah!_

_We are soldiers!_

The song was one that she would whisper to herself during missions and about halfway through, the other SOLDIERs were singing along with her. Applause was think in the air for a moment until Zack yelled out for her to sing another, much to her annoyance, though even she had to admit that it felt good to sing again, so she obliged and once more they fell silent. 

(We're not gonna fall-daughtry)  
_it's a world full of heartbreak drive-bys_  
_we've seen our fair share of hard nights_  
_looked right into the face of a goodbye_  
_while we walked on the edge of the dark side_  
_after all this time, yeah_

_we're not gonna fall now_  
_we're not gonna bleed out_  
_never gonna break down_  
_no, whoa_

_just when these four walls try to cave in_  
_and the ground underneath starts shaking_  
_it's the hope in your eyes that i cling to_  
_and i hope to god it never leaves you_  
_after all this time, yeah_

_we're not gonna fall now_  
_we're not gonna bleed out_  
_never gonna break down_  
_no, whoa_  
_[x2]_

_even if they come for us_  
_everything can turn to dust_  
_you and i are never going down_  
_the bullets and the bombs of love_  
_go ahead and fire at us_  
_we will never give it up_  
_oh, oh_

_we're not gonna fall now_  
_we're not gonna bleed out_  
_never gonna break down_  
_no, whoa_  
_[x3]_

She sang alone this time, only because the lyric were so unfamiliar. The silence that followed was not unwelcome by any of them, it was a pleasure to simply sit and enjoy the peace for a while, especially when everything had peaked and exploded in the most extravagant way possible. Jas relaxed back against Genesis, who wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer. 

"So, next we take out Deepground, settle everything with AVALANCHE and we get to go back to being crazy super humans?" Zack asked, hands playing with a long strand of Aerith's hair. 

"Yeah, but I think we've earned some time to relax, we'll tell that story later."


	39. END

## So, that is the final chapter to White and Gold, I hope you all enjoyed this fanfiction and I am planning on doing a sequel, so no panicking! Though before that, I have another Final Fantasy 7 idea in development that I'm going to pursue before starting the sequel. I'll be sure to post the link to my next fanfiction when I get a few chapters down and the sequel up at some point. Thank you all for reading and be sure to leave a comment!!!

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own anything except Jasmine Strife and the altered plotline. 
> 
> This is also a work on Quotev: https://www.quotev.com/story/6630315/White-and-Gold-Final-Fantasy-VII
> 
> Story art can be found on Deviantart: http://jasminesharde.deviantart.com/gallery/57849754/Devious-Folder


End file.
